At Castlebar District Court this week Judge Mary Devins found a Kilkelly man guilty of drink driving and dangerous driving and disqualified him from driving for three years.
At the May sitting of the court Judge Devins adjourned the case to consider it after it was claimed by the defendant, Damien Walsh, High Street, Kilkelly that the garda who arrested him refused to call his solicitor after the arrest, after it was reported that a van was driving the wrong way down the N17 outside of Claremorris.
Giving her judgement, Judge Devins told the court: “This has come down to a net issue for me. Somebody has mislead the court, inadvertently or otherwise. I had to decided did I accept the evidence of a garda who was on duty or the evidence of man who by his own admission had drunk half a litre of vodka on the day in question. I have to accept the evidence of the garda on this.”
For drink driving Judge Devins convicted and fined Walsh €350 and disqualified him from driving for three years, she took the charge of dangerous driving into consideration while imposing her sentence. Recognisance was fixed in case of an appeal.
