Drink driving case dismissal may open floodgates
A judge in Cork District Court today indicated that he was most likely to dismiss hundreds of drink driving cases next week if they were more than four years old.
The revelation came during as a closely-watched case of a man accused of drink driving was dismissed.
The key issue as far as Judge Con O’Leary was concerned was one of memory.
The judge said that gardaí would be giving evidence of matters that they carried out on a routine basis more than four years ago and that they could not possibly have a clear memory of the facts.
“In criminal prosecutions, to say I do not remember prosecuting the person, here are my notes, that would be wrong to convict on that basis,” the judge said.
Judge O’Leary then dismissed the case before him, where Paul Reynolds of Windwood, Model Farm Road, Cork, had been accused of drink driving in February 2003.
“I find justice would not be served by hearing the case.” He said. “I dismiss the case.”
Paul Reynolds was in the witness box yesterday and his solicitor, Tracy O’Brien, if he could remember certain key aspects of his prosecution, including the time of his arrest and subsequent release from the garda station, the number of gardaí present in the station and the number of gardaí present when he was given the intoxalyser. He said he could not remember any of the details.
State solicitor in Cork city, Barry Galvin, suggested that the defendant could refresh his memory from the statement he made to his solicitor shortly after the incident.
He also said that notes made by the gardaí would not be used as evidence but that they would be used by gardaí to refresh their memory before giving oral evidence.
Ms O’Brien said the accused person had a constitutional right to a speedy trial and that this was the essence of the application to have the case dismissed.
Commenting generally on the cases, Mr Galvin said: “I say that people came in to court and sought to have these trials delayed. In a sense they waived their constitutional rights (to a speedy trial).”
Mr Galvin said there may be cases among them where there was a death or a serious injury.
The judge said that if there were such cases it was for the prosecution to point them out.
