Inquest into death of cyclist Gabriele Glodenyte adjourned due to delayed forensic report

Leading road racer (24) died after being hit by a car at Grallagh in north Co Dublin in May 2023

Cyclist Gabriele Glodenyte died in a collision with a driver in the Garristown area of north Co Dublin in May 2023. Photograph: Laura Hutton
Cyclist Gabriele Glodenyte died in a collision with a driver in the Garristown area of north Co Dublin in May 2023. Photograph: Laura Hutton

The inquest into the death of Gabriele Glodenyte, who died after being hit by a car while cycling in north Co Dublin almost two years ago, has been further adjourned as the Garda investigation is continuing.

Ms Glodenyte (24), a leading road racing cyclist, was out cycling with her boyfriend Seán Landers, also a well-known cyclist, at Grallagh, Garristown, when the collision occurred.

Insp John McMonagle told Dr Myra Cullinane at Dublin Coroner’s Court that Ms Glodenyte’s death was the subject of an ongoing investigation by gardaí at Balbriggan and he was seeking a further six-month adjournment.

He said a forensic collision report, which would be an important factor if a file was to be sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions in relation to Ms Glodenyte’s death, was being awaited.

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The coroner said she understood a “resource issue” was causing delays in the production of forensic collision reports. She said the waiting period can, in her experience, be between 18 months and two years. Insp McMonagle agreed.

Dr Cullinane adjourned the inquest to a date in August under a section of the Coroner’s Act that applies when criminal proceedings are being contemplated, but not necessarily going to be instituted.

She said it was not necessary for the family to attend the August hearing, which would be for mention only, and that the family could be kept abreast of developments by way of their Garda liaison officer. However, she said they were welcome to attend if they so wished.

Present at the brief sitting in Store Street were Ms Glodenyte’s mother, Edita and stepfather, Fergus Finnegan, Mr Landers and his father, John Landers.

Ms Glodenyte was originally from Lithuania but her family moved to Ireland when she was a teenager. She attended Gormanston College, Co Meath and Trinity College Dublin, from where she graduated with first class honours. She was working for Microsoft at the time of her death.

In an interview with The Irish Times in November 2023, Mr Landers said he was out cycling with Ms Glodenyte on May 27th of that year and stopped on the side of the road at Grallagh.

He said she stopped up ahead to wait for him and as she did so, an oncoming driver crashed his car and fatally injured Ms Glodenyte.

“I came across the scene, I didn’t see it happen. As I was getting there, the driver was getting out of his car,” he said.

Ms Glodenyte was in a nearby ditch away from her bike, he said.

“I kind of knew she was gone. But I started doing CPR on her. I didn’t know what to do, I just didn’t want to do nothing.”

Colm Keena

Colm Keena

Colm Keena is an Irish Times journalist. He was previously legal-affairs correspondent and public-affairs correspondent