“An inordinate and unjustifiable delay” in the investigation of a case of dangerous driving in 2007, led to a failure to prosecute, Mr Justice Kevin O’Higgins has found.
He found there was nothing done about the investigation for 14 months and by the time a file went to the Director of Public Prosecutions the appropriate charge had been statute barred; time had run out to prosecute.
On December 27th, 2007, at the Lakeside Manor Hotel, Virginia, Co Cavan, in the small hours of the morning, three men and a woman were thrown out of the hotel by security staff.
They got into a BMW and the driver reversed toward the hotel entrance at high speed, hitting three people, who received minor injuries.
A file was eventually sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions in December 2010, and no prosecution was directed because of the time lapse.
In his investigation into issues in the Cavan/Monaghan area, raised by Garda whistleblower Sgt Maurice McCabe, Mr Justice O’Higgins found this investigation was “seriously flawed by reason of delay”. And, he said, there was irreconcilable evidence as to who the investigating garda was in the case.
Sgt Tom Murray, from Bailieboro Garda station, handed the case over to Virginia Garda station, Mr Justice O’Higgins found, but the Pulse system was not changed.
Sgt Murray thought Sgt Martin Conroy from Virginia was investigating; Sgt McCabe, from Bailieboro, also thought Virginia was investigating. Chief Supt Michael Clancy thought Sgt Conroy was investigating and Supt Noel Cunningham thought Garda Aidan O’Hanlon was investigating.
Garda O’Hanlon thought he was “merely tasked with certain duties and that having carried them out, that he might or might not be required again”.
The question of who is investigating garda should be “amenable to an immediate and accurate answer”, Mr Justice O’Higgins said.
‘Confusion’
“It is of concern that in this case, it was the cause of confusion and uncertainty,” he said.
He also said there was further concern that the investigation lay “dormant for many months apparently unnoticed by anybody”, between mid-January 2008 to the end of March 2009.
The lack of investigation “may have gone unnoticed” but for Sgt McCabe’s complaint, Mr Justice O’Higgins found.
The investigation was restarted, an individual was arrested and admitted to driving the car, but said he had reversed accidentally. He was not prosecuted.
No one was ever disciplined in the case because a decision that disciplinary proceedings should go ahead was never communicated.
Mr Justice O’Higgins said disciplinary proceedings at this stage would be “quite unfair”.
Sgt McCabe made complaints about the investigation, including about Chief Supt Clancy, but these were rejected by the judge.
