A garda detective accused of stealing a car engine told a jury he believed he was being set up by other gardai when called to headquarters for interview about the matter. Det Garda John Ryan told Dublin Circuit Criminal Court: "It's outrageous what has happened to me. I have never seen anything like it."
Det Garda Ryan also alleged in his evidence that Det Sgt Patrick Normile, one of the principal prosecution witnesses, sold on a car seized by gardai and stole a battery from another seized car.
It was the sixth day of the trial of Det Garda Ryan (36), of Newtown Park, Blessington, Co Wicklow, who has pleaded not guilty to obtaining £260 from Det Sgt Patrick Normile by falsely pretending that he owned a Nissan Micra motor engine on or about August 1994. The engine was part of a car originally stolen in England and allegedly recovered by the accused in Stackstown Motors, Rathfarnham.
Det Garda Ryan said that he never realised the Nissan Micra engine was missing from the grounds of Rathfarnham Garda station until 1995 and added: "I had absolutely no dealings of any description with selling that engine; it was evidence and there was no possibility of me dispensing with it." He showed the court a Visa receipt for a two-week stay in a hotel in Killarney for the month the Nissan Micra was taken from the station.
Asked by defence counsel Mr Erwan Mill-Arden SC if he had received any proceeds from the sale of the engine, he replied: "As an experienced policeman there is no possible way that I could have sold that engine." Det Garda Ryan said that he first became suspicious that he might be a suspect when he was called to Garda Metropolitan HQ in Harcourt Square. He agreed with Mr Mill-Arden that he had refused to sign statements he made to investigating gardai because they in turn had refused to read his statements back to him. Earlier, he said that in November or December 1995, he travelled with Det Sgt Normile to the Poitin Stil pub in Rathcoole. Det Sgt Normile met a small man with glasses there and agreed to sell a Fiat Uno car gardai had seized in a raid. He agreed that Sgt Normile had denied the allegation in his evidence.
The trial continues before Judge Dominic Lynch.