Former garda abandons appeal of sex conviction
A former garda presenter on RTE’s Crimeline programme has abandoned his bid to overturn a conviction of having solicited sex with a 12-year-old girl in a Limerick brothel.
Ex-Garda Sergeant Gerard Lynch, aged41, is now to concentrate on an appeal to have the nine months jail term, imposed by the District Court, reduced on the grounds of severity of sentence.
Mr Patrick Mc Entee, SC, counsel for Lynch, who was sacked from the Garda Siochana last month following a period of suspension with pay, told Judge Jacqui Linnane in the Circuit Court today Lynch would undergo psychiatric treatment.
Lynch, who had been stationed in Malahide, Co Dublin, withdrew his appeal against conviction this morning at what was scheduled to be the start of a three-day hearing.
Mr McEntee, who appeared with Mr Charles Corcoran, was granted an adjournment for three months to facilitate psychiatric treatment for Lynch and the preparation of psychiatric reports for the court.
The court has the power to reduce the nine months sentence or increase it by three months to the maximum District Court jurisdiction.
Lynch has already unsuccessfully fought his conviction on a number of legal points in the Circuit and High Courts and failed in an attempt to have a legal point clarified by the Supreme Court.
The courts have already heard that Garda Sergeant Anne Marie McMahon posed, in blonde wig and plain clothes, as a brothel keeper capable of supplying for sex a 12-year-old girl to Lynch.
A video of a conversation between herself and Lynch in a bedroom in a brothel known as Erotica, Elm Street, Limerick, had been shown to judges in both the District and Circuit Courts.
The video identified Lynch sitting on a bed talking to Sgt Mc Mahon about the provision of a 12-year-old girl, code-named Tanya, for sex.
The video, played in open court, showed Superintendent John Kerins later entering the bedroom and arresting Lynch.
The earlier court hearings revealed that in interviews with gardai Lynch had told them he had been involved in a "naïve" solo investigation into the provision of children for sexual exploitation and his meeting and conversation with the "brothel keeper" ( the disguised Sgt Mc Mahon) had been to further his inquiries.
Supt Kerins told the court Lynch had told gardai a tube of KY gel, found in his possession at the time of his arrest, had been to "convince" the brothel keeper but had later claimed it was for his personal use to alleviate pain in his back passage caused by a bowel irregularity.
A G-string knickers, also found in his possession, Lynch said had belonged to his wife and that he had mistakenly picked them up when leaving home on the morning of his arrest. He claimed he often took a spare pair of underpants with him "in case my system discharges itself" which had occurred lots of time.
The court had heard Lynch had told Supt Kerins he had been naïve in undertaking the personal investigation of children having been exploited and had never claimed travelling expenses or time off in lieu. He had denied ever having had sex with children.
Lynch was convicted in the District Court in November 2000 of having solicited sex from an underage girl. District Court Judge Gerard Haughton had heard Lynch was arrested in June 1999 in the "sting" operation by fellow officers.
Judge Haughton told Lynch after his conviction: "It is difficult to imagine an offence of this nature which could be any more serious.
"The public are entitled to expect that the courts will take a serious view of any situation where young children are put at risk.
"The accused braved it out to the last. He was a competent liar --- cool, calm and collected.
"He asked this court to believe and to accept that what he was doing was protecting these very children he was intending to prey on. It is significant in my view that he has never said he was guilty."
Lynch had appealed his conviction to the Circuit Court and in May last year his counsel had argued that Lynch had been charged with soliciting sex with a fictitious girl --- and since no such person existed such an offence could not exist on the grounds of impossibility of performance.
Judge John Buckley, since retired, had referred this and other legal points to the Supreme Court which sent the matter back to him on the grounds it did not have time to deal with it before his retirement in October last year.
After Judge Buckley’s retirement the appeal, which was withdrawn yesterday, was listed for a complete re-hearing before Judge Linnane.
Lynch, who had been a garda for 16 years, had been on suspension with pay since his conviction in November 2000 but was officially dismissed from An Garda Siochana in December last year. The move was confirmed in a Garda bulletin distributed to all members of the force.
