'It's an extreme of the human condition': Ireland's new true crime podcast host

Ellen O'Donoghue

A newly married woman is found dead at the bottom of the stairs in her home, and what seems like a tragic accident soon raises chilling questions. A manhunt ensues – but for whom? And how is justice served?

Meanwhile, a series of letters arrive at Garda stations across the Midlands, and investigators have to turn to his handwriting, delving deep into the mind of a man whose secrets are darker than anyone imagined. A potential killer waiting to pounce is uncovered.

Separately, an 11-year-old boy disappears near his home, and a discovery that would shock the nation is made after one of the largest searches in the State’s history.

These crimes are all cases discussed in a new podcast, Lines of Enquiry, a GoLoud podcast examines investigations, critical decisions and dramatic twists in some of Ireland’s most well-known crime cases.

Host John Sweetman worked as an expert crime scene investigator with the Garda Technical Bureau for 25 years.

He uses his expertise and closeness to the cases, having worked on numerous ones discussed in the podcast, to use his forensic expertise and bring listeners through the facts, evidence, and results.

“I spent 10 years in fingerprints, going out to crime scenes, chemically treating exhibits, looking for fingerprints from items taken from crime scenes,” Sweetman says.

“After 10 years there, I moved sideways within the Technical Bureau to the documents and handwriting section, which would entail examining any kind of secure document, be it passports, identity cards, driving licenses, currencies, to determine whether or not they are real or counterfeit.”

It appealed to his “natural eye for detail,” Sweetman says.

He was always artistically inclined, having worked in animation before joining An Garda Síochána. The Garda Technical Bureau appealed to him because he says, “I didn’t like being out in uniform”.

When first approached to host the podcast, Sweetman thought that Bauer Media and GoLoud wanted advice or background on a case.
“But no, they asked me to be the host. I was kind of like, what?” he laughs.

It has been a collaborative effort, however, with Sweetman providing cases for episodes alongside producers, and they all work on scripts together.

He thinks that his ability to explain the logistics of the crimes clearly comes in part from having to appear before a judge and jury in a trial, and getting them across in a way “that’s understandable to the layperson”.

He also knows what gardaí do and do not say from day to day when working on cases, so it provides another layer of authenticity to the stories.

“I bring a good bit of knowledge to what goes on behind the crime scene tape at cases that we’ve covered so far, little things the public might know about, and maybe demystifying a few things about looking for fingerprints, or any kind of evidence, at crime scenes,” Sweetman says.

He hopes to shed light on some cases that the public may not be as aware of, too, he says, such as the Midlands Letters case, where a man was sending letters to garda stations in the Midlands threatening to abduct and kill teenage girls.

“That was an investigation that nobody would be aware of, because essentially it was more of crime prevention rather than coming to the thing after some serious incident has gone down,” Sweetman says.

“That was a very interesting case to work on, because it went on for a couple of years before there was a resolution to it.

“But every time I pick up the phone to call an old colleague of mine, or maybe another retired member that was on the job with me, somebody will bring up another thing that sounds really interesting, so there’s plenty of them out there,” Sweetman tells BreakingNews.ie.

Other cases covered in the podcast include the case of Robert Holohan from Cork, who went missing and was found murdered, and the case of Mary Gough, who was found dead at the bottom of the stairs at her house by her husband.

In that case, the suspect faked his own suicide, triggering a manhunt until he was tracked down and faced justice.

Another crime discussed on the podcast is the murder of Mary Dillon in Finglas – Sweetman’s first murder as a member of the Garda Technical Bureau in 1998.

“The was a very, very interesting case in that it was a complete whodunit.”

It’s an extreme of the human condition, and people just find it fascinating.

When it comes to people’s fascination with true crime, Sweetman describes it as funny.

"It’s always been there, and it’s certainly ballooned in the last few years now, because things like podcasts and YouTube and all that sort of stuff,” he says.

“It’s an extreme of the human condition, and people just find it fascinating.

“Most of us will go through life and will hopefully not be involved in something serious like you see or hear about in these true crime things, but that doesn’t lessen the fascination with the extremes of what people are capable of,” Sweetman says.

“The fascination with true crime, it’s not going to go away. No more than crime is going to go away, the fascination that we all seem to have for it, it’s just there.”