A court has heard that the manager of a post office, on trial for perverting the course of justice, had confessed that he had tampered with a urine sample in a drunk driving case.
Joe Miley of Knockcroghery, Co Roscommon, whose son Mark is a postman, outlined details of a series of conversations he had with PO manager, Kevin Rogers on March 28 of last year.
He was giving evidence at Roscommon Circuit Criminal Court where Mr Rogers, 50, of Mote Park, Roscommon has pleaded not guilty to a single charge of doing an act intended to pervert the course of natural justice by interfering or tampering with potential evidence on 5 March, 2012.
The court heard that the urine sample had been taken from Michael Lyons, another Roscommon Post Officer worker and friend of Mr Rogers, arising from a road traffic accident on 3 March last year.
Evidence was heard on the first day of the trial from Mark Miley in which he said that Kevin Rogers had pushed a box inside his jacket at Roscommon Post Office on 5 March with instructions to say nothing to anybody and to "deny all".
The box was hot and had a bad smell from it, Mark Miley had told the trial.
Officials from the Medical Bureau of Road Safety in Dublin which analyses samples taken in Garda prosecutions, said that the box containing the sample had been interfered with and there was no urine in the sample bottle.
It appeared to have been subjected to heat and pressure and analysis was not possible.
His father Joe, said that two men had called to his home on 28 March looking for Mark.
He did not know that the men were detectives or that his son was being arrested as part of the Garda investigation into the matter.
He contacted Mr Rogers who was his son's boss as he was concerned that his son had gone off in a car with the men.
Mr Rogers, who was a family friend, later came back to him and said he was afraid his son had been a victim of a tiger kidnapping.
Joe Miley said he was so concerned that he drove into the post office in Roscommon and arranged for Mr Rogers to come out to talk to him in his car.
"He said: 'It’s Smack's urine sample'-Smack was Michael Lyons". Joe Miley said he asked Mr Rogers if Mark had tampered with it, to which he responded: "He said 'No, no, no. I did it. Mark did nothing' ".
He denied a suggestion by defence counsel, Martin Giblin that this conversation never took place.
Detective Sergeant John Costello said he arrested Mr Rogers later that day and in a memo of an interview with him at Roscommon Garda Station, Mr Rogers denied tampering with the urine sample which had been posted by the garda investigating the accident involving Michael Lyons.
He told gardai in the interview that something had fallen out of Mark Miley's tray of post in the post office on 5 March and he had helped him by picking it up and putting it in his jacket because he was carrying the tray.
When Mark Miley's version of events was put to him he had said "I don't know, maybe they're trying to frame me".
The trial continues next week.
