A high-level meeting took place on Friday at Garda Headquarters to evaluate the fallout of a failed Garda investigation and prosecution of four serving garda\u00ed and a retired Superintendent in Limerick, and to discuss other Garda suspensions.<\/p>\n
Political pressure is growing on the Garda Commissioner Justin Kelly to act over calls for a review into the arrest, charge and failed prosecution of retired superintendent Eamon O\u2019Neill and four garda\u00ed by the Garda National Bureau of Criminal Investigation (GNBCI) and Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).<\/p>\n
The Taoiseach and others, including Niall Collins, on Friday evening called for a review of the investigation into the five accused, who were acquitted by a jury at Limerick Circuit Criminal Court.<\/p>\n
Mr O\u2019Neill, his wife Garda Anne Marie Hassett; Sergeant Michelle Leahy; Garda Tom McGlinchey; and Garda Colm Geary, were all found innocent in respect of charges of attempting to pervert the course of justice in respect of pending or potential road traffic prosecutions.<\/p>\n
Barristers for the four Garda\u00ed argued they were either using their own Garda discretion or following orders in respect of the cases.<\/p>\n
Mr O\u2019Neill argued that, in his status at the time as a Superintendent, he was legally and fully entitled to use his discretion in when dealing with members of the public.<\/p>\n
Following a mammoth nine-week trial which cost the State millions of euro, a jury at Limerick Circuit Criminal Court found the five accused \u201cnot guilty\u201d of a total of thirty-nine charges.<\/p>\n
The former head of the GNBCI, retired Detective Chief Superintendent Walter O\u2019Sullivan, denied, while giving evidence at the trial, suggestions put to him by defence barristers that the GNBCI had unfairly pursued Eamon O\u2019Neill for \u201cnonsense\u201d charges, because it had carried out a previous investigation into him which went nowhere, and which had also cost huge money, as well as garda manpower and civilian garda resources.<\/p>\n
The Garda Representative Association (GRA) has described the investigation and prosecution as a \u201cwitch hunt\u201d.<\/p>\n
Today and throughout this week, senior garda\u00ed attached to Garda Headquarters met and were briefed by senior Garda management personnel in respect of the fallout from the costly and failed prosecution.<\/p>\n
After the acquittals last Tuesday, Garda HQ informed Sgt Leahy, Gda Hassett, Gda McGlinchey and Gda Geary that their suspensions, which they had been under for the past five years, had been lifted and they were welcome to return to work.<\/p>\n
Sources say the four garda\u00ed are taking some time to consider their options.<\/p>\n
The question over the continuing suspensions of two additional garda\u00ed attached to the Roads Policing Unit, Limerick, who are not charged with any crime, was also raised with Garda HQ personnel on Friday.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s understood Garda HQ is to consider legal advice before considering the two suspensions further.<\/p>\n
Mr O\u2019Neill, who retired from the force in 2020, is expected to resume a High Court claim for damages from the State, paused for the trial, after he was found innocent in relation to two failed GNBCI investigations.<\/p>\n
Limerick Fianna F\u00e1il TD Niall Collins said he agreed and supported the Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin\u2019s call for a review into the GNBCI probe.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe key issue, as the Taoiseach highlighted, is proportionality and the principle of perspective. The investigation had a devastating, traumatic impact on those garda\u00ed, their careers and their families and on Garda morale,\u201d said Minister Collins.<\/p>\n
\u201cThankfully, the four formerly suspended garda\u00ed have had their suspensions lifted and can return to serving their communities. I know that there are others who are still on suspension and I am sure the processes and systems relating to that are being looked at in light of this week\u2019s events.”<\/p>\n
Last Wednesday, the Taoiseach said that, in his opinion, the use of Garda discretion was \u201cimportant\u201d for Garda community relations.<\/p>\n
Mr Martin wants a review of how the GNBCI conducted its enquiries into Mr O\u2019Neill and the four other Garda members.<\/p>\n
\u201cGiven what transpired, one has to question whether the principle of perspective was applied here or not,\u201d the Taoiseach added.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is fair to say that those garda\u00ed have been acquitted by the courts. That is an issue on which we have to reflect.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI will discuss the matter with the Minister for Justice and the implications of that.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt seems that a review of what transpired needs to happen because it impacted Garda morale more broadly and had a significant negative impact on the careers of the five garda\u00ed and, as the Deputy stated, of others as well,\u201d the Taoiseach said in response to Fianna F\u00e1il TD Cathal Crowe in the D\u00e1il.<\/p>\n
Many sources within the force have described the fallout from the Garda trial as \u201canother embarrassing saga for An Garda Siochana\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A high-level meeting took place on Friday at Garda Headquarters to evaluate the fallout of a failed Garda…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":273568,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-273567","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273567","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=273567"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273567\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/273568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=273567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=273567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=273567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}