Mother demands dismissal of garda who killed her son

The mother of a man killed by a garda in a drink-driving incident has said she wants the officer dismissed from the force. His prison sentence was lifted on appeal yesterday.

"All I've ever wanted is to see this man out of uniform," Ms Eileen Jones said after Judge Carroll Moran said at a sitting of Portlaoise Circuit Court in Tullamore, Co Offaly that he was rescinding the six-month sentence on Garda Martin Shankey-Smith.

Judge Moran said he hoped the Jones family would understand the reasoning behind his decision.

Mr Alan Jones (28) died last December after being struck by Garda Shankey-Smith's sports car after he and his brother left a disco at Portarlington, Co Laois. He was carried some distance on the bonnet of the car.

Garda Shankey-Smith (39), a Traffic Corps officer with 15 years' experience in the force, drove away and called his girlfriend on a mobile phone. She advised him to return to the scene.

He did so and admitted responsibility.

Passing sentence in July, Judge Mary Martin had questioned why he was not facing a more serious charge.

The Democratic Left spokeswoman on justice, Ms Liz McManus, criticised yesterday's decision and called on the Minister for Justice to introduce non-statutory guidelines on sentencing.

Garda Shankey-Smith told the Jones family in court yesterday that he could not express how sorry he was.

"I don't want his sorrow," Mrs Jones said. "I've lost a professional young man, my beautiful son. I feel today as if a steamroller has run over me. We've kept going on throughout this. But we have nothing, and we still don't have our son."

The family will consider taking a civil case against Garda Shankey-Smith, she said.

A legal expert said the family could sue for negligence and breach of duty. The statutory award for death was £20,000, plus funeral expenses, but the courts could make larger awards.

An internal Garda investigation, led by a chief superintendent, was set up. It is understood that the inquiry was put on hold pending yesterday's appeal.

A senior Garda source said the inquiry would restart, but a criminal conviction did not automatically lead to dismissal from the force.

Because Garda Shankey-Smith was not charged with dangerous driving causing death, it is possible that an internal inquiry will not find grounds for dismissal, the source said.

"I do know judges deal in black and white," Mrs Jones said yesterday. "But we believe the case from the DPP was never strong enough. They dealt with the case as it was presented to them. The whole thing from start to finish has been handled with kid gloves."

She said Garda Shankey-Smith had "left Alan on the side of the road like an animal. And then he used a mobile phone to phone his girlfriend when he could have been phoning a doctor or an ambulance."

On Saturday his brother David will represent Alan at a graduation ceremony in Dublin, to accept his qualification in quantity surveying from Bolton Street, Ms Jones said. "I'd like to see Alan's picture in every Garda station and down in Templemore, saying `An off-duty guard killed this man when he was drunk.'

Mrs Jones is the daughter of one of the first gardai in the State. "I'm not a uniform basher. What I want is respect for my father's uniform."