An appeal against a conviction for drink driving by a Bantry woman on the grounds that she was unlawfully detained failed in the Circuit Court.
BY DAVID FORSYTHE
Barrister Alan O’Dwyer for Mary Egan of Reendonegan, Bantry appealed the conviction on two points – that she was unlawfully detained and that the arresting garda had not invoked the relevant legislation giving him power of entry on private property.
State solicitor Jeremiah Healy told Bantry Circuit Court that Ms Egan had been reported to gardaí for alleged drink driving by her former partner and his wife, when she arrived to collect her daughter from them at a service station on April 24, 2021. They reported her to Bantry Garda Station.
Garda John O’Shea responded to the call and went to Mary Egan’s address where he found her sitting in her car in the driveway.
He said that she appeared slumped down in the driver’s seat dressed in a dressing gown and he at first thought she was sleeping.
He told the court that he knocked on the window of the car which roused her and she repeatedly told Gda O’Shea to f**k off.
Gda O’Shea told the court that Mary Egan eventually opened the passenger side window and there was a strong smell of alcohol in the car and she appeared ‘very intoxicated.’
Gda O’Shea said that he had formed the opinion she was drunk in charge of a vehicle but called the garda station for assistance from a female garda because Ms Egan was not properly dressed to protect her dignity.
Mr O’Dwyer said that Ms Egan was effectively unlawfully detained for 20 minutes until the female garda arrived at which point she was arrested.
He said that Gda O’Shea should also have invoked Section 7 of the Road Traffic Act 2010 because he was on Ms Egan’s private driveway but he did not do so. Mr Dwyer said that Ms Egan was clearly asking Gda O’Shea to leave her property by telling him to ‘f**k off.’
Gda O’Shea told the court that when the female garda arrived Ms Egan was able to get a change of clothes before she was brought to Bantry Garda Station where her blood alcohol level was recorded as 220mg per 100ml where the legal limit is 50mg.
Mr Healy said that it was ‘a very embarrassing situation’ and Gda O’Shea was trying to maintain Ms Egan’s decency.
He said that everything the garda did was for her benefit and there was no wilful attempt to interfere with her rights. He said that if Gda O’Shea had not acted the way he did it would have been ‘a dereliction of duty.’
Judge Dermot Sheehan said he would decline Mr O’Dwyer’s applications. He said that Gda O’Shea did the sensible thing in waiting for a female colleague to arrive.
He said the garda did the best he could in the circumstances and was entirely to be commended for the way he managed the situation.
He added that the use of the phrase “f**k off” could be interpreted in many ways and he was not convinced in this instance that Ms Egan was asking Gda O’Shea to leave the property.
He convicted and fined Ms Egan €200 allowing six months to pay. She was given a three-year mandatory driving disqualification – deferred until February 1st 2025.
