Dairne Olwen Cassidy

An Alexandra police constable who investigated a road crash involving another police officer has been sentenced to seven months home detention for wilfully attempting to pervert the course of justice.

Dairne Olwen Cassidy (40), appeared before Judge Paul Kellar for sentencing in the Alexandra District Court today.

Cassidy was in charge of the investigation into the collision between Senior Constable Neil Ford's Holden Rodeo and a Honda driven by 17-year-old Shane Cribb on Earnscleugh Rd, near Alexandra, on July 14, 2005.



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Ford (56) was jailed for 28 months in September for perjury, relating to the same car crash.

He had claimed Mr Cribb was to blame for the accident and the teenager was convicted for careless driving causing injury.



Cassidy was the first police officer to attend the scene of the accident and heard Ford say: "I was turning into the driveway, backed out, saw the car coming, I then 'gave it the gun' to try and get out fo the way.''



Four days later she saw Ford's statement, which was quite different to what she had recorded in her notebook, Judge Kellar said.



Mr Cribb was convicted on the driving charge, but a rehearing was ordered after his defence team found further witnesses. Mr Cribb was acquitted of the charge.



Four years after the accident, Cassidy came forward to disclose the statement. She stated she had been "bullied'' by a superior officer, not to disclose the statement.



Judge Kellar said Cassidy's offending, as a serving police officer, was a "breach of trust''.Her actions were "material'' in a wrongful conviction being entered against Mr Cribb.



However, he accepted that she was a person of undoubted good character, she had expressed remorse and she had pleaded guilty to the charge.



Cassidy's counsel, Bill Dawkins, of Invercargill, said the defendant's confidence had diminished from about 2004 onwards. She had a "breakdown'' in 2006 and found it difficult to maintain a tough facade in her vulnerable state.



Cassidy was "deeply ashamed'' of the impact her actions had on Mr Cribb, her family and friends, the wider Alexandra community and on herself.

