Woman arrested by gardaí probing fatal Glanmire crash is released without charge

Sheila Dunne. 

She was arrested by members of the Garda team investigating the circumstances surrounding the death of mother-of-two Ms Dunne, from injuries she sustained in a car crash near Glanmire in February.

Members of the emergency services who responded to the crash at Sarsfield Court, Glanmire, at around 7.45pm on February 11 found a white SUV lying on its driver’s side.

They found a critically injured Ms Dunne inside on the driver’s side and another woman in the car with non-life threatening injuries. Ms Dunne was rushed in critical condition to Cork University Hospital, where she died two days later.

Garda suspicions were aroused when an autopsy revealed certain injuries on Ms Dunne’s body which were not consistent with her sitting in the driver’s seat at the time of the crash.

They have been trying to establish since whether she was moved into the driver’s seat after the crash, who may have been involved, and why.

Gardaí have spent weeks examining and analysing CCTV to trace the vehicle’s movements in the hours before the crash.

Phone records

They have also been trawling through phone records to see if any occupants of the car used phones to make contact with others in the local area around the time or in the immediate aftermath of the crash.

Rumours swirling in the city in the weeks after the crash prompted the owner of a city pub to issue a public statement on social media denying that he had been anywhere near the scene of the incident on February 11. The statement included a request that the post be shared.

The publican said he had apologised to his staff for what they had had to endure and that he had sought and received assistance from gardaí in relation to the “bogus hate memes and rumours viciously fabricated” that had been circulating.

Ms Dunne, who was a special needs assistant at Watergrasshill NS, was remembered at her funeral Mass at the Sacred Heart Church in Glounthaune as someone who had a great sense of pride in her two children Lilley and TJ.

Her late husband, well-known local DJ Ted Dunne, died three years ago.

CORRECTION (May 7): Contrary to our original publication, the woman referred to above was arrested after presenting herself by appointment at Mayfield Garda Station for the purpose of an investigation into dangerous driving causing the death of the late Sheila Dunne, and not at her home. The arrest was not on foot of suspicion of perverting the course of justice. We are happy to correct the record in these respects.