A FINE GAEL councillor who repeatedly asked a superintendent to cancel a speeding fine told the same garda that he had lobbied the government to have GoSafe van locations moved in County Limerick, a court has heard.

It emerged during the trial of four serving gardaí and a former superintendent in Limerick Circuit Criminal Court today when garda civilian analyst Laura Galligan was giving evidence.

The accused are: retired Garda Superintendent Eamon O’Neill, who served across the division but was the lead officer in Newcastlewest; Limerick based Sgt Michelle Leahy; Sgt Anne-Marie Hassett, who formerly served in Limerick city; Garda Tom McGlinchey, Murroe Garda Station; and Garda Colm Geary, Clare Garda Division. All pleaded not guilty.

The five are accused with perverting the course of public justice in relation to the cancelling of fixed charge penalty notices. Sgt Leahy is accused of the offence in connection to striking out a summons while in court.

The court has heard that Liam Galvin, a councillor from Ballaugh, Abbeyfeale, Co Limerick had contacted former Superintendent Eamon O’Neill about a speeding ticket and asked “can you sort that for me”.

The fixed charge penalty notice related to an alleged offence of speeding at 142km per hour in a 120km/hr zone on the M20 near Patrickswell, County Limerick in November 2017.

Photographic evidence provided to the jury showed how Galligan downloaded messages on WhatsApp from the phones of Eamon O’Neill and Liam Galvin.

The images show a number of interactions between Galvin and O’Neill, where the latter was asked to deal with the fine. 

In one message Galvin sent O’Neill a message which a photograph of an agenda for a Limerick Council meeting. It carried the caption “Ha Ha Ha”.

The image attached showed a document in which Galvin wrote a submission to a meeting of his council. It was a proposed motion to request the Government to “review” the location of GoSafe vans in County Limerick. 

In response O’Neill said: “is sorted” regarding the cancelling of the prosecution. 

The case centres around an investigation by the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation (NBCI) into the practice of stopping tickets for speeding, mobile phones and other offences from being issued. 

The gardaí were all based in the mid-west, particularly in Limerick garda division.

The court was hearing evidence from Galligan who was being questioned by prosecuting barrister Carl Hanahoe SC. 

Her evidence outlined that she was tasked by the garda investigation team with the GNBCI to examine WhatsApp messages on seized phones from gardaí, members of the public and the accused.

She said this was all associated with contacts between the various people who were seeking to have penalty point tickets and summonses cancelled.

Galligan examined downloaded WhatsApp messages and compiled data which showed alleged interactions in regard to requests to have road traffic offence tickets and summonses cancelled by gardaí. 

The evidence given to the court included images of the messages and some of the meta data captured by her examinations. 

Limerick hurling

The court heard that there were message groups which included two groups associated with Limerick Senior Hurling and included numbers attached to players on the team. In one group associated with the Limerick hurlers it was named LSH 2019 the other was entitled World Series Champs. Eamon O’Neill was a member of both groups.

Both WhatsApp groups dealt with messages with information for players and staff of the team which included fixtures, nutrition for players, training of players and other matters. 

In World Series Champs, the court heard, that there was details about the team’s homecoming having won the All Ireland and a visit to Áras an Uachtaráin in 2018.

Galligan also gave evidence, questioned by Carl Hanahoe, in regard to messages between individuals who had been stopped by gardaí or between the accused in the case. 

Laura Galligan continues her evidence tomorrow sitting before Judge Roderick Maguire and a jury of seven men and four women at Limerick Circuit Criminal Court.