An Garda Síochána concealed conviction of Shane O’Farrell’s killer
An Garda Síochána concealed a conviction of a suspected garda informant – received months before he killed cyclist Shane O’Farrell in 2011 – which contradicts the state’s version of the tragic case.
The state – through a scoping exercise led by a retired judge that included contributions from gardaí – had maintained that Zigimantas Gridziuska, who killed O’Farrell in a hit-and-run, wasn’t convicted until months after the killing.
A Ditch investigation has revealed Gridziuska was convicted on indictment of a theft offence almost a year before gardaí had previously said.
O’Farrell’s bereaved family has for more than a decade sought answers about the conviction and justice minister Jim O’Callaghan told them last month a public inquiry is still being considered.
Sinn Féin TD Matt Carty has questioned whether Gridziuska was a garda informant based on the existence of a redacted garda intelligence unit file.
A series of ‘apparent errors’
Cyclist Shane O’Farrell was 23 when he was knocked down and killed by Zigimantas Gridziuska on 2 August, 2011 in Carrickmacross, county Monaghan. O'Farrell had just finished a master's in law at Trinity College Dublin.
Gridziuska had 35 convictions in Ireland and his native Lithuania before killing O’Farrell.
Both the gardaí and the Courts Service made a series of apparent errors in their engagements with Gridziuska – errors that took the O’Farrell family years to uncover. These led to two GSOC investigations, a Courts Service internal probe and a scoping exercise led by retired judge Gerard Haughton.
The O’Farrell family, as well as several TDs from both government and opposition parties, have long been dissatisfied with the investigation into the death.
The O’Farrell family has questioned the state’s timeline of one of Gridziuska’s convictions.
Gardaí have said Gridziuska didn’t receive one of his theft convictions till after killing O’Farrell.
In late October 2014 the garda commissioner’s private secretary Frank Walsh wrote to the Department of Justice secretary general.
In this letter Walsh claimed that Gridziuska’s case – for the theft of an item from a Cavan garage – wasn’t finalised till half a year after Shane’s death.
Walsh said Gridziuska first appeared in court in late 2010 before receiving bail and having his case adjourned.
In Walsh’s telling of Gridziuska’s case, his conviction wasn’t recorded until January 2012.
“This case was adjourned to Virginia District court on the 17 December, 2010 where a Trial Order was issued and the defendant was given bail. This case was mentioned at Cavan District Court for hearing on 10 January 2012 when ZG (Zigimantas Gridziuska) was convicted and received a six (6) month prison sentence,” he wrote.
A June 2022 scoping exercise led by judge Haughton gives a similar timeline.
"The ‘Cavan Bail’ arises out of a shoplifting offence where on the 4th November 2010 ZG stole a socket set valued €100 from a garage in Kingscourt. It appears from information from the Prison Service that on the 5th November 2010 he was remanded in custody and was released on bail on the 26th November 2010. The case was adjourned for a year in January 2011 and ultimately disposed of in Monaghan Circuit Court on the 11th January 2012,” wrote Haughton.
This timeline is contradicted by a December 2010 local newspaper report discovered by the O’Farrell family – as well as a subsequent Ditch investigation.
“Zigimantas Gridziuska… was returned for trial to the next sitting of Cavan Circuit Court on March 8 (2011),” according to a court report published in the Anglo Celt on 23 December 2010.
The Ditch can now reveal that a conviction for the Kingscourt theft was in fact recorded against Gridziuska on 8 March, 2011.
The Ditch discovered Gridziuska was banned from acting as a company director on 8 March, 2011 – the same date he was due in Cavan Circuit Court.
Under Irish company law, any person convicted of certain fraud-related offences – like Gridziuska – is automatically barred from acting as a company director for five years from the date of their conviction.
The Companies Registration Office (CRO) later confirmed that Gridziuska’s ban related to his conviction on 8 March 2011. The Courts Service later admitted that a conviction for the Kingscourt theft was recorded on that date, with the paperwork for the CRO prepared later that day.
The Garda Press Office has been contacted for comment.