Ex-Garda Gets Extra Nine Months For Leaking Fourteen Women’s Details To Friend A former garda has been given an extra nine months in prison for passing official driver records to a friend so the friend could look up women on Facebook. At Ennis Circuit Court, Judge Francis Comerford sentenced Shane Flanagan, 41, of Ennis, Co Clare, to nine months. The term will run after the seven-year sentence he received in July 2025 for inciting strangers to rape a female colleague. Between January and September 2020, Flanagan gave his friend Colm Meere, 45, of Knockanean, Tulla Road, Ennis, PULSE details on 14 female motorists in Clare. Meere used the names to view the women’s Facebook photos. Both men pleaded guilty to sample charges of unauthorised disclosure. Judge Comerford said a garda’s job is to protect the public, including women, and that Flanagan had engaged in “repeated criminality.” He called Meere’s requests “creepy” and said the case brought “disgrace and shame.”Meere, a married father of two, received a 14-month sentence, fully suspended. He told gardaí it was “stupid, male, egotistical behaviour.” The court heard there was no evidence he contacted the women, sent friend requests, or tried to meet them. None of the women made a victim impact statement. The offences came to light during the earlier investigation into Flanagan. His phone held 2,212 screenshots of PULSE records. Messages showed Meere sending registration plates of female drivers he had seen and asking Flanagan who owned the cars. The pair then exchanged crude comments about some of the women. Defence lawyers described the conduct as “utterly inappropriate” laddish behaviour that should be stamped out. Separately, Meere received an 18-month suspended sentence after pleading guilty to possessing items at Henry Street Garda Station in Limerick on 14 April 2022 that a court found were linked to drug trafficking.