A former garda who has already been jailed for accepting a £500 bribe to quash a drink-driving offence has received another six-month sentence for a separate corruption incident from Judge Desmond Hogan at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.
Limerick-born former garda Seamus Doherty received a three-year suspended sentence and was fined €3,809 by Judge Hogan last November, but in April the Court of Criminal Appeal ruled that he should serve six months in jail.
That sentence did not begin until June 1st and yesterday Judge Hogan sentenced him to another six months for accepting a £150 bribe in a separate incident.
Married father-of-two Doherty (42), from Castlefield Lawns, Churchtown, pleaded guilty to corruption in November 1999. Judge Hogan backdated the sentence to June 1st.
Mr John O'Donnell SC, for Doherty, said that both offences arose out of the same investigation, but the indictment was severed before he pleaded guilty to the first offence last year.
Chief Supt Michael Burns told Mr Fergal Foley, prosecuting, that Doherty was arrested in December 2000 after a Mr John Tobin reported him for seeking £20,000 not to prosecute him for a drink-driving offence, but they later settled on £500.
The Garda authorities then launched an investigation into previous cases involving Doherty. They discovered that on August 15th 1999 he arrested a Mr Ian Bloomer, who was three times over the legal drink limit, and processed him at Rathmines Garda station.
Three months after this incident, Doherty had phoned Mr Bloomer, and they met in the car park of a pub on the Stillorgan dual carriageway. Doherty informed Mr Bloomer that he had taken care of the court summons.
Mr Bloomer thanked him and asked if there was anything he could do, to which Doherty replied that he needed a new golf driver. A few days later they met at the same spot and Mr Bloomer handed the sum of £150 to Doherty.
Chief Supt Burns said that when the investigation was launched they searched Doherty's locker at Terenure Garda station and found a number of files. They discovered the summons that was never served on Mr Bloomer and the blood sample to prove that he was over the limit.
Chf Supt Burns added that Mr Bloomer received a one-month suspended sentence and was fined €700 in February 2002 at Dublin District Court for an offence under the Prevention of Corruption Act.
Mr O'Donnell said that his client had worked as a civil servant for five years before he joined the Garda, and he had an unblemished record in both careers until these offences.
Chf Supt Burns told Mr O'Donnell that he was at a loss as to why Doherty had committed the offences, especially considering the small stakes involved.
Mr O'Donnell added that his client was a former inter-county hurler with Limerick and helped out training children at his son's school. He had lost a lot of friends in the Garda as a result of his actions and he had already suffered a great deal. He had gone from being a well-respected member of the community to being someone who was shunned by large portions of the community. It would be very many years, if ever, before he could regain any sort of respect again.