Former childminder accuses Laois garage owner of careless driving

A garage owner appeared in court accused of careless driving by his family’s former childminder. 

Oliver Brady (50) of Brefini, Old Glass, Rathdowney denied driving carelessly on the R433 at Grantstown on March 29, 2024. 

Garda Olimpia Sosinska said Susanne Whelan came to Rathdowney Garda Station on April 8, 2024 and made a complaint about an alleged careless driving incident from March 29, 2024. 

Garda Sosinska said the woman had stated that a man known to her had driven a white van in a dangerous manner on the date.  Garda Sosinska said she contacted the accused by phone and invited him to discuss the allegation but he refused. 

The following day, Garda Sosinska called to the garage and asked him to make a statement. “He told me it is nonsense from a person with a grudge. ‘It wasn’t me. I have several vans. I was in Portlaoise at the time’,” said Garda Sosinska. 

She said there was CCTV in the garage but the defendant refused to hand it over. She said he also refused to make a statement. 

Garda Sosinska secured CCTV footage from the Junction 3 Ballacolla service station which she had in court. 

Solicitor Philip Meagher said his client’s position is that he wasn’t involved. He wasn’t there and he wasn’t driving a white van. He said the man runs a well known local garage. Mr Meagher said that after the allegation was made, his client realised that he had in fact been in the garage all day on March 29. 

Mr Meagher asked Garda Sosinska about the allegation. She told him that the woman had claimed the defendant had been driving behind her and was trying to overtake. She said  when she got to the junction known as Ryan’s Cross at Grantstown where she was turning right the driver “made me feel intimidated” by driving very close and almost parallel to her car as if he was going to turn right, before continuing straight on. 

Mr Meagher described it as “extraordinary that this lady, while she is able to name Mr Brady, she is not able to give you a registration number”. 

He asked Garda Sosinska if the woman had told her that she previously worked for the accused and his wife in a childminding capacity. He said the employment was terminated by the accused man’s wife in “somewhat acrimonious” circumstances. 

“She informed me that they knew each other,” said Garda Sosinski. She said her job was to investigate the allegation. 

Susanne Whelan took to the stand and recounted the day of the incident. She said she had dropped her daughter off to work in Supermacs at Junction 3 for 1pm. 

She said the defendant was driving out of his garage as she passed. She said he “pulled up behind me in the van and started blaring the horn at me”. 

Ms Whelan said as she pulled up at the junction  and indicated to turn right the van drove up beside her as if it was going to pass her out. “I just felt the van was going to hit me. It was very, very intimidating his driving, I felt,” she said. 

She told the court that she was 100 percent sure the  driver was the accused man. 

Mr Meagher said his client says her story was a “complete fabrication” and he asked why her statement had been made around 10 days after the incident.   

The woman said she had attended numerous times at Rathdowney Garda Station but there was no one on duty.

He then asked why she hadn’t pulled over, called gardai and said, “there is a lunatic here” trying to drive her off the road. She said she did call to the garda station on a number of occasions. 

Mr Meagher asked why she hadn’t attended another station when Rathdowney was closed. “Rathdowney would have been the only station I would have thought of,” she replied. 

Mr Meagher noted the woman had made a statement in April and a follow up statement in June in relation to the matter. However, he said it was only in evidence in court that she had "conveniently", in his words, “parachuted” new evidence of the accused driving out of his garage on the date of the allegation. 

“You are saying now, today, out of nowhere in two statements” that he was driving out of the garage. “I put it to you that you have added that today,” Mr Meagher said. The woman denied this.  “If any of this was true you would have mentioned in your two statements,” he said.   

Mr Meagher put it to her that she and immediate members of her family had a grudge with the accused since she was let go as a childminder. She denied that this was true. 

Shannon Coffey from Ballacolla Service Station gave evidence of supplying CCTV from the station from 12.30pm to 1.30pm on March 29 to gardaí. A clip of the footage was shown in court. It featured a white van leaving the car park at the rear of the station. 

Ms Coffey said the car park was used by customers and the four businesses located at Junction 3. 

After the footage was shown, Mr Meagher made a submission to judge Catherine Ryan. He said the evidence has not reached the threshold to prove careless driving. He said the allegation relates to a white van close to her that “seems to change its mind and drive straight”. 

Mr Meagher said she hadn’t described any incident and the threshold for driving without care and attention was not met. He said the court should have a doubt about Ms Whelan’s evidence.

Judge Catherine Ryan said it was up to the prosecution to prove beyond reasonable doubt that there was careless driving. “I do not believe it has reached the threshold for careless driving,” she said as she struck the case out.