Coronor stops inquest into road death at the request of deceased’s family

There will be no inquest investigation into the road-death of a woman which led to the suicide of an investigating garda.
Donegal Coroner Dr Denis McCauley today said he had been instructed by the family of Sheena Stewart, a 34-year-old mother of three who died in an accident on New Year’s Day, 2015, that they didn’t want the inquest into her death to continue.
Dr Mc Cauley recalled after hearing other inquests in Donegal town that that he had opened and adjourned an inquest into the death of Ms Stewart, of Mountain Top, Letterkenny, in December 2015.
The adjournment was to allow a criminal investigation to proceed into the accident in which Ms Stewart, a pedestrian, died.
That criminal investigation is over, and evidence was heard in separate court proceedings which had now concluded, he said.
However, Dr Mc Cauley said at the request Ms Stewart’s family, he had decided to conclude the inquest hearing.
Last October a mini-bus driver was found not guilty of causing the death of Ms Stewart by careless driving in Ballyshannon on January 1, 2015.
A year earlier an inquest into the death of Sgt Mick Galvin found he took his own life with a Garda gun inside Ballyshannon station.
He did not know at the time he had been cleared of all wrongdoing by a GSOC investigation into Ms Stewart’s death.