Ryan Fitzpatrick of Jameson Orchard, Seamount Road, Malahide, pleaded guilty last year at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to perverting the course of justice by attempting to destroy a mobile phone linked to a particular SIM card
A criminal who offered a civilian employee a "bribe" for intelligence from the Garda Pulse system - and threw his phone in the toilet when gardai came to search his house – has failed in an appeal against the severity of his jail sentence.
Ryan Fitzpatrick of Jameson Orchard, Seamount Road, Malahide, pleaded guilty last year at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to perverting the course of justice by attempting to destroy a mobile phone linked to a particular SIM card in Malahide on May 27, 2020. He further pleaded guilty to corruptly offering a gift to Lauryn McCann to convince her to do an act in relation to her employment on a date unknown. In April last year Fitzpatrick, who has 30 previous convictions, was sentenced to four years with the final three months suspended by Judge Martin Nolan. Lawyers for Fitzpatrick had argued that the 27-year-old was treated unfairly in comparison to the civilian garda employee who received a two-and-a-half year sentence for providing the sensitive information. This argument was rejected by the Court of Appeal today, as it dismissed Fitzpatrick’s appeal on all grounds. In delivering judgement, Mr Justice John Edwards said contrary to the submission made by Fitzpatrick’s counsel, there is no principle of sentencing law which says that the supplier of information is necessarily to be treated as "more culpable" than, or equally culpable with, the receiver. Rather, it depended on the circumstances of the individual offender’s case and the level of their involvement. Mr Justice Edwards said Fitzpatrick’s conduct had been corrupt and "highly aggravated," noting he had taken a trial date, had been totally non-cooperative, had engaged in destruction of evidence and had absconded from justice, resulting in a request for his rendition from Spain on foot of a European Arrest Warrant. The judge said the particular form of corruption in Fitzpatrick’s case was the paying of money - in effect "a bribe" - to a civilian employee of An Garda Siochana to furnish intelligence information to him. This was harvested from the Garda confidential computer system known as PULSE and included data concerning the appellant personally and his suspected criminal activities. He said this was screen-shotted by the employee and sent via WhatsApp messenger. The motive for the corrupt activity on Fitzpatrick’s part was for "personal benefit", the judge noted, either through facilitating "the commission of crime" or the "evasion of detection" in past crime. Mr Justice Edwards said the unauthorised access to, and dissemination of, police intelligence data would, at the very least, be undermining of effective crime detection and law enforcement. He said in this particular case, Fitzpatrick was alerted to the fact that he was suspected of involvement in criminal activity and of some basis for that suspicion. He was also alerted to police intelligence data concerning others and associates. The judge said a further ground of appeal advance was a suggestion that the trial judge gave insufficient discount for mitigation. He said the court rejected this contention and noted the level of discount given was "well within" the sentencing judge’s margin of appreciation. At the appeal hearing, Pieter Le Vert BL, for the defendant said that while there were grounds for treating his client differently to his co-accused, there was no justification for the size of the difference. Joe Mulrean BL, for the Director of Public Prosecutions, responded saying that there was no error and the sentence imposed was "perfectly appropriate". He pointed out that Fitzpatrick pleaded guilty not just to corruption, but also to perverting the course of justice by throwing his phone in the toilet, potentially destroying evidence regarding dissemination of confidential garda files. Fitzpatrick was on bail at the time of the offence and exploited his co-accused, who was described as a vulnerable person. Counsel also pointed out that Fitzpatrick has multiple previous convictions for drugs offences, road traffic matters and endangerment. The court heard that despite evidence on Fitzpatrick’s phone being destroyed when he threw it into the toilet, gardaí were able to salvage the SIM card. The SIM card could be linked to a series of messages and images that had been taken from the Garda Pulse system, which had been sent by the civilian employee of An Garda Siochana. Fitzpatrick fled Ireland after the garda raid and had to be extradited back to face the charges. At a sentencing hearing last year, Detective Garda Garret Durnan told John Berry BL, prosecuting, that Fitzpatrick's co-accused admitted to forwarding photos of information on the Pulse system to an individual in return for cash. In November 2022, Lauryn McCann of Ministers Park, Lusk, Co Dublin was jailed, having pleaded guilty to corruptly agreeing to accept an inducement to access garda intelligence and a count of obtaining and disclosing garda intelligence files to a third party on dates in May 2020. Judge Nolan imposed a two-and-a-half-year jail sentence on the corruption count, with the second charge taken into consideration. Join the Irish Mirror’s breaking news service on WhatsApp. Click this link to receive breaking news and the latest headlines direct to your phone. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don’t like our community, you can check out any time you like. If you’re curious, you can read our Privacy Notice.
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