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BreakingNews.ie
3 days ago
- BreakingNews.ie
Limerick Garda breaks silence after acquittal in 'nightmare' corruption case
A Garda has broken his silence over a seven-year long probe led by the Garda National Bureau of Criminal Investigation (GNBCI) that failed to convince a jury he had done wrong. Speaking after the jury in his eight-day trial returned 'not guilty' verdicts last Friday, vindicated Garda Tom Flavin, Rathkeale Garda Station, said: 'The last seven years have been a nightmare for me and my family.' Advertisement Gda Flavin had denied 22 allegations that he had attempted to pervert the course of justice by trying to frustrate criminal prosecutions against individuals, including for driving without insurance. Senior counsel Fiona Murphy, prosecuting in Gda Flavin's trial alleged in court that the evidence would show he had 'sorted out' uninsured drivers by deliberately inputting insurance details into the Garda Pulse computer records system to try to frustrate the potential prosecutions. The jury unanimously disagreed and dismissed the allegations which had flowed from an expensive and top-level GNBC investigation probe that began in 2018. Garda Flavin and his solicitor Dan O'Gorman, have asked why Gda Flavin was brought to trial, when, as his trial heard, there was 'no direct evidence' against him, as it was put by Ms Murphy in court. Advertisement In a statement provided by Mr O'Gorman following the verdicts, Gda Flavin said: 'My elderly unwell parents attended during most of the trial and to witness them in such anxiety and obvious distress will haunt me for a long time.' Garda Flavin said he wished to thank his colleagues as well as members of the Garda Representative Association (GRA) 'for all their support'. 'I love and respect my job but I wish that certain quarters would investigate crime in places where crime actually occurs.' 'The whole case asks serious questions of standards and leadership at the upper levels of the Garda force.' Advertisement Near the end of the trial, the jury were directed by trial judge, Colin Daly, to find Gda Flavin not guilty on five of the 22 charges and to deliberate on the remaining 17 counts on the indictment. It took the jury just over three hours to reach unanimous acquittals. In a sharp rebuke of the GNBCI probe, Dan O'Gorman stated: 'Sometime before October 2018 the most equipped and resourced branch of An Garda Síochána, the GNBCI rolled out an investigation of Rathkeale Garda Tom Flavin in relation to the idea that he was perverting the course of justice in preventing certain named individuals being prosecuted for serious driving offences including driving without insurance.' 'The full resources of the investigation were deployed. In October 2018, his family home was searched, personal possessions seized. He was suspended. His reputation was shredded,' Mr O'Gorman said. Calling for an examination of the GNBCI's probe of Gda Flavin, the solicitor added: 'For seven long years he and his family have been in a wasteland of isolation and suspicion Always, he held his head up and protested his innocence. It has been my privilege to have represented him.' Advertisement 'After a trial he has been unanimously acquitted and his journey is over. He is today the man he always was — The innocent Tom Flavin.' 'Serious questions have now to be asked of this elite branch of the Gardaí as to how all of this could have possibly been visited on an innocent man and his family,' Mr O'Gorman added. During the trial Gda Flavin's barrister, senior counsel Mark Nicholas, had argued that the prosecution had no smoking-gun evidence against Gda Flavin and he asked the jury to dismiss the allegations. Fiona Murphy, prosecuting, had told the jury that the case against Gda Flavin was anchored on 'circumstantial' evidence. Advertisement 'There is no direct evidence, instead the prosecution relies on indirect evidence,' Ms Murphy said. In the statement provided by his solicitor afterwards, Gda Flavin said: 'The whole case asks serious questions of standards and leadership at the upper levels of the Garda force.' Speaking after the trial, Garda Frank Thornton, Garda Representative Association Limerick Division, a former president of the association, said: 'I welcome the jury's verdict as it totally vindicates Garda Flavin of any wrongdoing, but there is now a bigger question that requires an answer: why would it take almost seven years for this case to reach conclusion?' 'This member, like many of his colleagues, has spent years trying to clear his name with a dark cloud of unfair dishonour hanging over him.' Garda Thornton said cases involving Garda members should be dealt with quickly to ensure 'the health and wellbeing of our members, but also to rebuild trust in the communities they serve'.
BreakingNews.ie
4 days ago
- Business
- BreakingNews.ie
Jury told to find Garda not guilty on five of 22 allegations related to motoring prosecutions
A jury in the trial of a Limerick Garda accused of 'sorting out' motoring offences for drivers were on Thursday directed by the trial judge to find him not guilty of some of the charges. Tom Flavin, (51), Rathkeale Garda Station, Co Limerick, should be acquitted of all of the charges as there is no real evidence against him, his barrister, senior counsel, Mark Nicholas, said in his closing speech to the jury. Advertisement Mr Flavin went on trial before Limerick Circuit Criminal Court on May 27th accused of 22 counts of attempting to pervert the course of justice. Today, senior prosecuting counsel, Fiona Murphy, told the jury they were to find Mr Flavin not guilty of five of the charges and that they would consider verdicts on the 17 remaining counts. Mr Flavin, who denies all the charges, is accused of attempting to pervert the course of justice by entering false motor insurance details on the Garda Pulse records computer system, in an attempt to frustrate potential prosecutions against persons for driving without insurance. The drivers involved were stopped at routine Garda checkpoints around the country and asked by the garda present to produce their insurance and licence details at a nominated Garda station within 10 days of the traffic stop. Advertisement All of the drivers asked to do this nominated Rathkeale Garda Station. Later, when the investigating garda in each of the stops carried out follow-up checks of Pulse, they were satisfied that details entered into the system indicated that the driver in each case was insured. However, the court heard the drivers were not insured, and some were even prosecuted in court afterwards after pleading guilty to driving without insurance at the time they were stopped. In his closing speech to the jury, Mr Nicholas SC, instructed by solicitor Dan O'Gorman, described Mr Flavin as an exemplary garda who had served with dedication in Croom and Rathkeale, Co Limerick, for many years. Urging the jury to acquit Mr Flavin and not fall into the trap of speculation, Mr Nicholas added there was radically insufficient evidence to support a conviction. Advertisement 'He served his community without blemish and without any disciplinary blots - you know that from the evidence. When other Gardai came to give evidence, his superiors, they spoke of him very fondly and well - It wasn't far off gushing, and they spoke with knowledge,' Mr Nicholas told the jury. The defence barrister spoke of the 'unique challenges' Gardai face in Rathkeale as opposed to other jurisdictions. 'People who live down here know it has an enormous population, transient, in and out at various times of the year. One policeman said (the population) quadruples and with that comes its own set of problems and own sets of vehicles - UK car registrations, UK insurance, some not insured, some not being entirely truthful.' 'We know that a certain number of times that people who were pulled up and stopped and asked for their documentation, produced bogus insurance certificates.' Advertisement Mr Nicholas said the charge of attempting to pervert the course of justice is an extraordinarily serious allegation to make against a serving Garda. 'That he (Mr Flavin) must have deliberately, knowing the (insurance) certificate to be false, inputted it into the system with the intention that it would frustrate a prosecution. There has been nothing close to this level of proof in this case whatsoever,' added Mr Nicholas. The court heard evidence of persons providing documents at Rathkeale Garda station, however it was unclear who exactly produced what at the Garda station, and what exactly was produced. Fiona Murphy SC, prosecuting, said all of the relevant data entries onto Pulse 'were entered under the ID of Thomas Flavin'. Advertisement Ms Murphy told the jury that a statute of limitation of 'six months' generally applied in respect of prosecuting offences of driving without insurance. 'It is the prosecution's case that Tom Flavin knew they (the motorists involved) were not covered (by insurance) and that he entered the details onto PULSE to ensure they (appeared) covered,' Ms Murphy told the jury. Ireland Priest calls for end to violent feud in Limerick a... Read More 'Mr Flavin knew what he was doing, and he did so to ensure those persons were insured (on Pulse) when they were not, in order to ensure there was no prosecution,' Ms Murphy alleged. The prosecuting barrister told the jury that Tom Flavin enjoyed the presumption of innocence and that the burden of proof 'beyond a reasonable doubt' was all on the prosecution while Mr Flavin 'has nothing to prove'. Ms Murphy told the jury the prosecution's case was 'a circumstantial case, there is no direct evidence, instead the prosecution relies on indirect evidence'. It is anticipated that the jury will retire to consider its verdicts on each of the 17 counts on Friday.
Irish Times
29-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
A Midsummer Night's Dream at Blackwater Valley Opera Festival 2025: Vocally sure singing, but has a revamp muted Britten's orchestral magic?
A Midsummer Night's Dream Blackwater Valley Opera Festival ★★★☆☆ How things change. Back in 2010 the first Lismore Music Festival, today's Blackwater Valley Opera Festival , presented sure-fire repertoire – Bizet's Carmen, with Fiona Murphy heading the cast of 10 in the title role – in a marquee in the stable yard of Lismore Castle, with an ensemble of violin, accordion, guitar, double bass and percussion standing in for the colourful orchestral score. Move on 15 years and the festival is offering Benjamin Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream with a cast of 19 and the Irish Chamber Orchestra conducted by David Brophy, with nearly five times as many musicians in the pit. A Midsummer Night's Dream: Piccolo Lasso, Ami Hewitt and Dominic Veilleux. Photograph: Frances Marshall The stage area is transformed this year. A raised platform now covers the entire performance area, not only allowing for greater freedom of movement but also creating a pit for the orchestra at floor level. (The tiny Jubilee Hall in Aldeburgh, where Britten's opera was first performed, in June 1960, also had to be enlarged and improved to accommodate the work.) The festival has made cosmetic improvements, too, with better-looking seating – which, strangely, is less comfortable because of the way it tilts forward – and black ceiling drapes, which give a softer interior appearance; sadly, they seem to do little or nothing to damp the percussive onslaught of rain on opening night on Wednesday. READ MORE So far so good. What about the production itself, directed by Patrick Mason and designed by Paul Keogan (set and lighting) and Catherine Fay (costumes)? It's a handsome, brightly lit show, the central, white-curtained bed about as close as it gets to any suggestion of night, and with different social levels distinguished through costumes of different periods. The actor Barry McGovern's black-clad Puck, wielding a white feather/wand/baton, falls somewhere between master of ceremonies, wizard and wannabe conductor. The soprano Ami Hewitt's beautifully bewigged Tytania sweeps and soars in style and manages a suppleness of vocal line that is otherwise in short supply. A Midsummer Night's Dream: Barry McGovern. Photograph: Frances Marshall A Midsummer Night's Dream: David Brophy and Irish Chamber Orchestra. Photograph: Frances Marshall The voice of the countertenor Iestyn Morris is too ethereal for his Oberon to make a real impression, sounding mostly insubstantial rather than atmospheric. The various couples – Christopher Cull and Gemma Ní Bhriain as Theseus and Hippolyta, Peter O'Reilly and Sarah Richmond as Lysander and Hermia, and Gregory Feldmann and Amy Ní Fhearraigh as Demetrius and Helena – are more engaging, vocally sure and with real tension in the conflicts they experience as a result of the love-inducing magic juice that mismatches them. A Midsummer Night's Dream: Amy Ní Fhearraigh, Gregory Feldmann, Peter O'Reilly, Sarah Richmond and Dominic Veilleux. Photograph: Frances Marshall A Midsummer Night's Dream: Ami Hewitt and Dominic Veilleux. Photograph: Frances Marshall The mechanicals are a damp squib when going through the preparations for their play within a play but altogether livelier in their performance of that comedy. The Bottom of the bass-baritone Dominic Veilleux revels in the comic opportunities afforded him as the ass Tytania is made to fall in love with. But, musically, there is something pallid about the performance. I'm not sure that this is entirely the fault of either singers or conductor. The voices don't carry well, and the orchestra is often so soft and muted that much of Britten's orchestral magic fails to register. My seat near the back may have played a part, but my primary suspicion is that the drapes just absorb too much sound in a space that's already severely acoustically challenged. A Midsummer Night's Dream is at Blackwater Valley Opera Festival , Lismore, Co Waterford, on Friday, May 30th, Saturday, May 31st, and Sunday, June 1st; the festival runs until Monday, June 2nd
