A garda superintendent advised former Kerry footballer Tomás Ó Sé that he could avoid penalty points for a speeding offence by nominating another driver to take them, a jury has been told.
Text messages between the five-time All-Ireland medallist and superintendent Eamon O’Neill about a speeding offence were shown to the jury in the trial of the retired superintendent and four gardaí who are charged with perverting the course of justice by intervening in road traffic prosecutions.
Mr Ó Sé, who is the Kerry Under-20 football manager and a GAA analyst with RTÉ Sport, sent a picture of a fixed charge penalty notice to Mr O’Neill in January 2019, with a text message that read: "Good start to the new year."
The notice related to an offence of speeding at 121km/h in a 100km zone in Blarney, Co Cork.
On a later date, Mr Ó Sé sent another text message to the superintendent, which said: "What’s the best thing to do with those letters I got? Take it on the chin?"
The court heard that Mr O’Neill forwarded the messages to a third party, asking: "Can you do anything for him?"
The superintendent sent a message in reply to Mr Ó Sé, telling him that the only way out of it was to nominate someone abroad driving the car to take the penalty points.
Another text message from Mr O'Neill asked Mr O’Sé, "Can you not get someone?".
The court heard that Mr Ó Sé was convicted of speeding and paid a fine €125.
The former Kerry footballer is not accused of any wrongdoing in this trial.
Mr O'Neill is accused of 27 counts of attempting to pervert the course of justice.
He is alleged to have contacted various gardaí with a view to having them contact other gardaí involved in the the detection or prosecution of the alleged road traffic offences, in order to have the cases withdrawn or struck out from court.
The court has heard this is referred to by gardaí as "squaring" away a potential or pending court summons.
As well as Mr O'Neill, four serving gardaí who he allegedly contacted directly or had contacted one another, on his behalf, are on trial for a total of 39 counts of engaging in conduct tending and intended to pervert the course of justice on dates between October 2016 and September 2019.
The four gardaí are Sergeant Anne Marie Hassett, Sergeant Michelle Leahy, Garda Tom McGlinchey and Garda Colm Geary, who have all pleaded not guilty.
The jury was today told that the trial, which is in its 5th week, is likely to continue into the new year.
