A MAN WHO threw his phone into water when gardaí arrived at his home to search it has been jailed for three years and nine months for perverting the course of justice and corruption.
The court heard that despite evidence on Ryan Fitzpatrick’s phone being destroyed, gardaí were able to salvage the SIM card.
This SIM card linked the phone back to a series of messages and images that had been taken from the Garda Pulse system, which had been sent by a civilian employee of An Garda Síochána.
Ryan Fitzpatrick (26) of Jameson Orchard, Seamount Road, Malahide, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to perverting the course of justice by attempting to destroy a mobile phone linked to a particular SIM card in Malahide on 27 May, 2020.
He further pleaded guilty to corruptly offering a gift to Lauryn McCann to convince her to do an act in relation to her employment on a date unknown.
Fitzpatrick has 30 previous convictions for offences including drugs, road traffic offences, endangerment and a hit and run.
Detective Garda Garret Durnan told John Berry BL, prosecuting, that a former civilian employee with An Garda Síochána, Lauryn McCann (23) was jailed for two and half years in November 2022 after she admitted to forwarding photos of information on the Pulse system to an individual.
At that sentence hearing the court heard that McCann sent around 70 photos using WhatsApp over a seven-day period to an individual referred to as “R”.
McCann of Ministers Park, Lusk, Co Dublin pleaded guilty to a count of corruptly agreeing to accept an inducement to access garda intelligence and a count of obtaining and disclosing garda intelligence files to a third party on dates in May 2020.
Det Gda Durnan said as part of this investigation McCann handed over her mobile phone during which the WhatsApp messages and images were discovered.
A number of these messages were read out in court including “Alright I need all of 2020 and 2019” and additionally “There is always a few quid for you”; “I’ll give you €500”; “Can you check the vehicles linked to him?”; “Can you check the locations?”
Det Gda Durnan confirmed that the person contacting McCann was looking for knowledge that gardaí had about named individuals and addresses and vehicles attached to them.
He agreed with Berry that this was sensitive information collated by gardaí and was not for “dissemination”.
Det Gda Durnan said some information on these messages linked back to Fitzpatrick and a warrant was secured to search his home.
The gardaí arrived at 7am and breached the door of the house before running upstairs shouting “gardaí”.
Fitzpatrick was running into a bathroom and was spotted throwing a phone into water, damaging it. Gardaí were able to retrieve information from the SIM card in that phone, which was subsequently linked back to the number that had been communicating with McCann.
Fitzpatrick was arrested and interviewed but Det Gda Durnan said “nothing of evidential value” came out of those interviews. Fitzpatrick later left the jurisdiction and was brought back to Ireland on a European Arrest Warrant.
Pieter Le Vert BL, defending, said his client was a single man with two children. He gets on well with his partner and is considered an excellent father who financially provides for his family.
Judge Martin Nolan said McCann had provided sensitive information to Fitzpatrick adding that he “must infer that she was asked to do this by this defendant”.
He said Fitzpatrick was nominated as a suspect and when the gardaí arrived at his home “he knew why they were there and tried to destroy evidence”.
Judge Nolan said it was “crude but effective” before he noted that the SIM card linked back to McCann.
He said Fitzpatrick had committed two crimes, corruption and perverting the course of justice by destroying evidence.
“The gardaí need systems and they need these systems to be secure. This information is very sensitive. It could cause serious problems for third parties if that information is given out,” Judge Nolan said.
He acknowledged that there were “certain inducements” and by reason of McCann’s “immaturity and stupidly she could not resist these inducements”.
Judge Nolan said “destroying the evidence in this manner prevented the gardaí from following other avenues” before he set a headline sentence of six years.
He said taking into account mitigating factors, including Fitzpatrick’s plea of guilty, he would impose a sentence of four years with the final three months suspended allowing for time he has spent in custody.
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