Charges against a couple from Co Westmeath accused of knowingly giving false and misleading information to a GSOC officer have been dropped at Sligo District Court.
Maeve and Fintan O'Brien from Carne, Castletown-Geoghegan, Mullingar, appeared before Judge Kevin Kilraine today charged with giving false information about a car collision outside Mullingar in June 2011.
However, before the evidence had concluded, the State entered a nolle prosequi in the case and the charges were dropped with Judge Kilraine noting that he was glad GSOC had adopted that course of action.
He commented that to say he was "unimpressed with the evidence so far is an understatement".
The court was told that the couple had been in Mullingar for drinks on their wedding anniversary and that an argument started between them.
They drove out of the town and stopped the car in an attempt to resolve their difference.
Mr O'Brien got out of the car and stormed away and when Ms O'Brien realised he was not returning, she got into the driver's seat and went in search of him.
There were conflicting accounts of how a collision then occurred between the O'Briens car and a car being driven by off-duty Garda Mark Kenny.
Both Garda Kenny and Mrs O'Brien said their cars were stationary at the time of the collision - Garda Kenny's being on the incorrect side of the road, Mrs O'Brien’s on the correct side.
Garda Kenny told GSOC that he was off-duty and returning home from work after 2am and saw a man in the ditch which he thought was suspicious and pulled in to talk to him and then Mrs O'Brien's car came towards his and hit it.
Mrs O'Brien claimed that she had pulled in when she saw her husband on the roadside and that her car was stationary when it was hit by Garda Kenny's car.
Mrs O'Brien was subsequently charged with failing to provide a specimen of breath but the case against her was dismissed.
Garda Kenny was breathalysed at the scene and the result was zero.
The court was told that no garda notebooks were submitted to the GSOC investigators and that there was no sketch map of the scene available.
Judge Kilraine said that it struck him that this was not properly investigated and that it was left "twisting in the wind".
The judge later refused to admit evidence from a former garda sergeant who examined the scene on behalf of GSOC, two years after the collision, because he said two winters had passed and the paint marks he would be referring to on the road would not provide reliable evidence.
Following the withdrawal of the charges against the O'Briens Judge Kilraine said that he had been spared having to make comments he was going to make regarding the garda witnesses, whose purpose, he said, was to mislead and not to assist.
