Delay in getting SouthDoc GP to garda station queried in drink driving case

THE late night workings of SouthDoc came under the scrutiny of Bantry District Court after barrister Brendan Kelly alleged his client faced an unreasonable delay while in custody.

Mr Kelly was in court to represent Paddy Ellis, a 73-yearold farmer from Rathooragh, Schull, who was charged with careless driving.

The barrister was also there to contest a second charge, an allegation that his client engaged in drink driving, at High Street, Schull at 11.30pm on December 30th 2022.

It was alleged that Paddy Ellis drove while there was present in his body a quantity of alcohol that – within three hours of driving – the concentration of alcohol in his blood exceeded a concentration of 50 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood.

Gda Michael Dunne was first to give evidence for the prosecution.

He said it was raining heavily that night and he could see the rear passenger window in the accused’s car was open and the back seat was getting wet.He said his first instinct was to make the driver aware of this but he subsequently noticed that the vehicle was on its incorrect side of the road. It was then that he activated the lights and siren and indicated for the vehicle to stop.

‘As I got out of the patrol car, the accused’s motor vehicle rolled back into the patrol car,’ Gda Dunne stated in evidence.

‘He then drove forward. I went around to the passenger side of the vehicle and opened the door and pulled up the handbrake myself because I was of the opinion that it was going to come back again into the patrol car,’ he added.

Then, Garda Dunne went back around to the driver’s side and asked the accused to step out of the vehicle.

‘I asked him for his driver’s licence. He got out his wallet, but he physically couldn’t take the licence out of the wallet, and I had to assist him,’ said the garda. ‘He had to put his hand on the roof of his own car because he was unsteady on his feet. There was a strong smell of alcohol and his speech was slurred. I formed the opinion that he had committed an offence and formally arrested him,’ said Gda Dunne.

The garda said the accused was placed in the patrol car and was brought to Bantry Garda Station where a specimen of his blood was taken at 2am on December 31st, which is within the three-hour limit as set out in the charge.

Gda Michael Kenneally, who was the member in charge at Bantry Garda Station that night, was also called to give evidence. He confirmed that the accused was unsteady on his feet.

Gda Kenneally said he could have put the accused into a cell but allowed him to sit on a chair to wait for the doctor appointed by South-Doc to arrive.

‘I did my best for the man on the night,’ he told the court. But the barrister argued that the doctor had rung the station to say he had ‘something else to do first’ and the garda confirmed that was correct.

‘That’s the situation with SouthDoc,’ the garda stated. ‘We don’t know when a doctor will arrive. It is what it is.’

The accused’s barrister argued that the two-hour and six minute wait for the doctor to arrive to administer the specimen test was an undue delay. He argued that the delay in taking the sample was ‘excessive’ and that the unreasonable delay made the detention of his client unlawful.

‘There is a failure to expedite an investigation and we are told that that’s just how it is,’ the barrister argued.

Insp Triona O’Mahony pointed out that the arrest time was 11.40pm and that the call to SouthDoc for a GP was made at 11.46pm.

‘For the doctor to arrive at 2am is not an unreasonable amount of time,’ she argued. ‘He arrived as soon as was possible.’

After considering the legal arguments, Judge James McNulty agreed that a sample should be acquired within a reasonable time and without unreasonable delays.

‘But there is a big difference between Donnybrook in Dublin and Cork and a detection in Schull in far out West Cork on a night in late December,’ he said. ‘It is as far from garda headquarters and the forensic lab as you can get. These are the realities of rural policing.

‘SouthDoc provides out-ofhours for busy GPs who need their time off. At 11.46pm a call was made and the accused was discharged from the garda station at 2.07am.

‘The doctor did tell the officer in charge that he had one more call to make before he would make it to the station,’ he added.

‘There was no undue delay, having regard to the geographical spread of West Cork and the availability of medical practitioners.’

‘This man was treated with respect, kindness and decency, and when it was all over, the gardaí drove him home.

‘The prosecution has ticked all the boxes,’ said Judge McNulty, who fined the accused €500 on the drink driving charge.

The judge noted that the accused, who has no previous convictions, will now has a three-year disqualification because the level of intoxication was high, and he marked a charge of careless driving ‘proven but taken into consideration.’

Mr Kelly asked for recognisances to be fixed for an appeal – a decision that effectively puts a stay on the district court order.