Justice Minister Jim O'Callaghan to apologise to family of hit-and-run victim Shane O'Farrell as bail laws come in for scrutiny
The 23-year-old law graduate was killed in a hit-and-run while cycling near his home in Carrickmacross, Co Monaghan, in August 2011 by Zigimantas Gridziuska, who was out on bail at the time, including for driving offences.
Shane's mother, Lucia O'Farrell, has for years campaigned for a full public inquiry, saying they don't know why the driver who killed her son was at liberty at the time of the killing.
While Mr O'Callaghan led calls for such an inquiry when in opposition, he has changed his approach since becoming minister this year and tasked the Oireachtas Justice Committee to examine whether an inquiry was warranted.
A scoping exercise into the case carried out by retired judge Gerard Haughton was published in July 2023 and found that an inquiry was unwarranted.
Speaking ahead of today's apology, Ms O'Farrell said the State had failed her son and an apology is 'long overdue'.
The case has highlighted a number of shortcomings in the bail system.
Between 2022 and last year there was a 14pc rise in crimes involving suspects who were out on bail. During that period, suspects for 114,665 crimes were on bail when the crimes were committed.
Gridziuska, a Lithuanian national, left the scene of the fatal crash but the following day handed himself in to gardaí. He had over 40 convictions at the time, including some in Northern Ireland.
On January 11, 2011, seven months before Mr O'Farrell was killed, Gridziuska appeared before Judge John O'Hagan in Monaghan District Court on five charges of theft and one of possession of stolen property – machinery from a factory – relating to 2009 and 2010.
The judge adjourned the sentencing until the following year on the condition if he was arrested for any offence under theft or fraud legislation, he would be brought back to the court and sent to jail.
The 38-year-old continued to offend, but was never sent to jail. Just four months later, on May 9, 2011, he appeared before Ardee District Court on five charges of theft – all involving bottles of alcohol. He was sentenced to four months' imprisonment, suspended for two years on the condition that he keep the peace and be of good behaviour.
A subsequent Gsoc report found that the judge in Ardee was not informed of the previous adjourned sentence in Monaghan. It said no effort was made by gardaí to re-enter the case before Judge O'Hagan, even though it was a breach of bail.
On June 8, 2011, Gridziuska appeared before Carrickmacross District Court on a charge of possession of heroin.
On July 6, he was a passenger in a car that was stopped and found to be in possession of charred tinfoil which gardaí suspected contained traces of heroin. It was sent for analysis and found not to contain heroin, according to Gsoc.
Shane O'Farrell's sister, Gemma, had complained to Gsoc about a garda delay in testing the sample. Her complaint was not upheld.
On July 14, 2011, three weeks before Shane's death, Gridziuska was arrested in Newry on charges of theft of trainers, perfume and alcohol. The next day he appeared before Newry Magistrates Court and was sentenced to five months' imprisonment, suspended for two years.
The Gsoc report says that 'gardaí were unaware' of Gridziuska's convictions in the North until July 2012. The O'Farrell family dispute this.
On the night of Mr O'Farrell's death, a car owned by Gridziuska and driven by another man was stopped by members of the garda drugs squad. No drugs were found, according to Gsoc. The car's NCT was not up to date. The driver was not insured. After being stopped by gardaí, the driver swapped with Gridziuška, who drove on.
The collision that killed Mr O'Farrell happened an hour later.
Gsoc accepted that if the car had been seized at that point, the fatal collision would have been prevented. But it noted that the gardaí in question were members of the regional drugs unit who were 'entitled to a reasonable exercise of their discretion' in relation to road traffic offences. Therefore, it stated, no further investigation was required on this decision.
Gridziuska ultimately pleaded guilty to failing to stop at the scene and failure to report the incident.
He was acquitted of the more serious charge of dangerous driving causing death.
He never served any time in relation to the death.
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