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23 Oct 2025

Judge to decide on motion to dismiss Áras Attracta charges tomorrow

Judge to decide on motion to dismiss Áras Attracta charges tomorrow

Discrepancies in RTÉ evidence under examination

VIDEO EVIDENCE RTÉ's Paul Maguire and Janet Traynor have been giving evidence about video files recorded in Áras Attracta which were deleted and others which were not copied onto a garda exhibit. Pic: Conor McKeown

Edwin McGreal
Castlebar

Judge Mary Devins will decide tomorrow (Thursday) if what she describes as ‘incomplete evidence’ for the assault prosecutions against five members of staff at the Áras Attracta facility in Swinford is significant enough to accede to defence counsels’ applications to strike out the charges.
The five employees are each charged with a single count of assault arising out of footage gathered by RTÉ during a Prime Time Investigates programme on standards of care in such facilities.
The five defendants are: Pat McLoughlin (56) of Lalibela, Mayfield, Claremorris; Christina Delaney (35) of Seefinn, Lissatava, Hollymount; Anna Ywunong Botsimbo (34) of Low Park Avenue, Charlestown; Joan Walsh (42) of Carrowilkeen, Curry, Co Sligo and Kathleen King (56), Knockshanvally, Straide, Foxford.
The five employees are contesting the charges and their trial got underway on Monday. A sixth worker at the facility pleaded guilty to five charges of assault and is also due before the court tomorrow.
Thus far the trial has not went into evidence and no footage has been viewed.

Focus
The focus on the trial so far has concerned the central piece of evidence in the case – the undercover video evidence recorded by RTÉ from November 3-19 at Áras Attracta.
Members of the RTÉ Investigations Unit had initially told gardaí that no video files had been deleted.
However on Monday it emerged that six video files recorded on November 12, 2014 had been deleted. The Head of the Investigations Unit, Paul Maguire told the court on Monday last that five of these six files had been accidentally recorded by their undercover reporter en route to work as a care assistant at Áras Attracta and that the sixth file, though recorded in the common room in Áras Attracta, contained ‘nothing of significance’.
Pauline Dunne, research assistant with RTÉ, told the court she had deleted these files, and Janet Traynor, director/producer confirmed she had instructed Ms Dunne to do this. Both of them told the court there were no more deleted files.
The court was told the gardaí were given a copy of RTÉ’s ‘master’ file, and that copy was subsequently circulated to the defence teams. On Monday evening, Conal McCarthy, counsel for one of the accused, requested the defence see the original ‘master’ file.
By the time court resumed on Tuesday, it emerged that six more files were absent from the garda and defence copies, but were on the ‘master’ file, following an examination of both files by Lynda Lenehan, a defending solicitor. Paul Maguire told the court he ‘could offer no explanation as to whether there was some technical glitch’ which prevented the six files being copied over.
Mr Maguire said he viewed the six files on Tuesday morning and told the court ‘there is nothing of significance in those files’.
The six files contained the first three files recorded on November 5, 2014 and the first three files recorded on November 6, 2014.
Mr Maguire said he compared the size of both the ‘master’ file and the garda copy when giving the copy to Detective Sergeant James Carroll of Claremorris Garda Station and said they were the same size.

‘Suppressing’
Conal McCarthy put it to Mr Maguire that what he said about comparing the file sizes was ‘absolute nonsense’. Mr Maguire refuted this. Mr McCarthy asked ‘who was responsible for suppressing the files’? Mr Maguire said the files were ‘absolutely not’ suppressed and added ‘we’ve nothing to hide’.
Judge Devins said a comment by Eoin Garavan, counsel for one of the accused, that all files were not made available to the defence or the prosecution had given her ‘pause for thought’.
She said it has now been shown that the Director of Public Prosecutions ‘did not have sight of all of RTÉ’s material’, citing the six deleted files and the six ‘non-copied files’.
She said the DPP’s prosecution direction was ‘based on incomplete evidence’.
Judge Devins asked prosecuting counsel Pat Reynolds if he wanted time to view the deleted and non-copied files ‘with or without’ a technical expert and refer the matter back to the DPP.
When the court resumed, Mr Reynolds told Judge Devins he was making an application to adjourn the case to Thursday to have the ‘master’ file and the garda copy brought to An Garda Siochana’s information technology experts in Harcourt Street in Dublin for ‘forensic examination’ today.
Defence teams objected to this. Gearóid Geraghty said if some of the deleted clips were blackouts, why did RTÉ not simply leave them and let people see they were blackouts. He said the events in court may allow the court to ‘infer’ it is ‘unsafe’ to rely on RTÉ’s evidence that these files were blackouts and ‘the court could consider’ that RTÉ ‘intentionally or otherwise … misled’ the court.
He said the footage his client is being prosecuted on was only 47 seconds long and if gardaí had done what RTÉ had done in this case, the prosecution would be stopped ‘there and then’.
Earlier in court Mr Geraghty said that to ‘proceed could lead to a real or perceived injustice’.
Eoin Garavan questioned why footage in the car journey was deleted and asked ‘was there a conversation in the car’? and argued there could be a ‘probative value’ to this.
He said he understood the ‘views of people’ from the broadcast of the show but added ‘we’re in a criminal trial’, arguing certain standards had to be met.

Injured parties
In response Pat Reynolds said it was not a prosecution by RTÉ and said it was a ‘serious case’ where the ‘injured parties are not able to verbalise the accusations’ and therefore the footage was vital.
He said that Judge Devins’ point about ‘incomplete evidence’ was a ‘lacuna that can be filled’.
He said in a normal trial of this matter, only the relevant footage would be given to the defence but here there was 190 hours of footage handed over.
He said ‘five very able advocates’ for the defendants had ‘attempted to put RTÉ on trial’. He argued the evidence against the defendants was ‘clear and cogent’ and that the files which were deleted and the ‘non-copied’ files did not relate to the days, November 14 and 15, where the alleged incidents the five defendants are charged with are alleged to have taken place.
Judge Devins said it was an unusual case and she needed time to consider the defence application for a strike out and the prosecution application for the files to be further examined by Garda experts. She will give her ruling at 10.30am tomorrow.
A sixth worker at Áras Attracta, Joan Gill of Dublin Road, Swinford, is due before the court tomorrow also. She has entered a plea of guilty for three charges of assault at the care facility.

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