free state police accused of torture
Time up for rogue gardaí? 11 May 2008 Sunday Business Post Moves have been made to convince the public that wrongdoing has been tackled in the Garda Síochána, but has enough been done, asks Public Affairs Correspondent John Burke. It should have been a great week for the Gardai. The force mounted one of the biggest raids in the history of the state last Thursday. Following months of careful planning, armed detectives and CAB officers raided homes and offices in Operation Platinum, which is targetting Limerick’s criminal gangs. But instead of basking in the glory of this anti-crime offensive, gardai were in the spotlight due to the latest report from the Morris Tribunal into policing in Donegal. Despite government assurances that safeguards are now in place to tackle allegations of garda wrongdoing, recent controversies continue to challenge public confidence in the force. Mr Justice Frederick Morris’s latest salvo against Donegal gardaí strongly criticised the intimidation of the wider McBrearty family and their associates, who were wrongly targeted following the death in a hit-and-run of Raphoe cattle-dealer Richie Barron in 1996. And, crucially, Morris concluded that the deficiencies observed are not particular to Donegal. But one does not have to go back to the mid-1990s to find allegations of garda wrongdoing, and it is the catalogue of controversies which has undermined public confidence and pose a challenge to the incoming Minister for Justice, Dermot Ahern. Just last month, an inquiry into the death of 14-year-old Brian Rossiter following the teenager’s arrest by gardaí in September 2002, was published in part by then minister for justice Brian Lenihan. Senior Counsel Hugh Hartnett’s report concluded that the child had been unlawfully detained by gardaí in Clonmel, Co Tipperary. Although the report found no evidence that the youth was assaulted while in garda custody, this newspaper revealed last October that two British forensic experts concluded that Rossiter had received his fatal injury either just before or during his time in garda custody. A post-mortem examination showed Rossiter had a massive abrasion on the left side of his head, although none of 30 witnesses to the private inquiry could recall seeing the marking. Independent forensic pathologist Professor Anthony Butussil, from the University of Edinburgh, noted that this bruising should have been highly visible if the trauma occurred earlier, coinciding with an assault on Rossiter by an older local man two days earlier. In a further, broad-ranging, analysis of garda detention, the report of the Council of Europe’s expert Committee on the Prevention of Torture (CPT), published last November, highlighted the niggling concerns of many front-line workers that the problems of garda indiscipline have not disappeared. The CPT delegation said that while most of those interviewed had no complaints about their period of garda detention, the international panel of psychiatrists and law enforcement experts did report, however, that ‘‘as had been the case during previous visits, a considerable number of persons did allege verbal and or physical ill-treatment by gardaí”. The specifics of allegations against gardaí included the claim by one detainee at Dublin’s Cloverhill Prison that a garda had tried to break one of his fingers. One of the delegation’s doctors examined the finger and found it had become ‘deformed’ due to recent trauma. Similarly, at St Patrick’s Institution for Young Offenders, a prisoner alleged that he was struck with a baton on his wrists and hands by a garda while handcuffed. Almost identical allegations were made against members of the force by persons held in Cloverhill and Mountjoy jails. Provisions contained in the 1997 Electronic Recording of Interview Regulations require those on specific serious charges to be subject to audio-video recording during garda interrogation - something which the committee said was ‘‘a significant contributing factor to reducing the amount of ill-treatment alleged’’. Worryingly, those who were not subject to audio-visual recording ‘‘ran a greater risk of ill-treatment by garda officers - particularly the case when the suspects are foreign and/ or drug addicts,” the CPT said. A total of 232 interview rooms in 130 garda stations have been equipped for the electronic recording of interviews and are now operational, according to the latest figures. Gardaí say almost 98 per cent of interviews with detained persons are recorded. Last Wednesday, as he handed over the reins of the department to Dermot Ahern, Lenihan said that since the mid-1990s, much had changed within the policing community. The creation of the Garda Ombudsman Commission (GSOC); an official whistleblower’s liaison for members of the force; and new internal garda disciplinary regulations, have dramatically altered garda accountability. However, controversies from the past continue to dog the Gardai, and few have been more damaging than events in Donegal. The latest of Morris’s six reports into garda wrongdoing in Donegal was made even more controversial by its release on the day the new cabinet took their seals of office. Despite the changes to policing management, Morris’s report pulled few punches. His substantive conclusions were that several people arrested in connection with Richie Barron’s death were mistreated in garda custody. Many were unlawfully arrested, Morris also concluded. More worrying was the much-quoted observation about the deficiencies observed not being peculiar to Donegal. Morris’s report led to the prompt issue of an apology by Garda Commissioner Fachtna Murphy to the extended McBrearty family. Although Morris’s report is further vindication for Frank McBrearty jnr and his family, the businessman responded angrily to elements - perhaps illustrating the complexity of the issue and the family’s longstanding discontent with issues relating to the tribunal’s work. McBrearty jnr insisted that the €1.5 million compensation package he received from the state proved he had not exaggerated what happened to him in custody. As revealed in The Sunday Business Post earlier this year, the state’s final payout to extended members of his family and friends, who were directly or indirectly victimised as a consequence of the garda action, will come to over €12 million, excluding costs. Criticising McBrearty jnr’s conduct during the tribunal hearings, Morris said that the businessman ‘‘used foul language, was argumentative and abusive, threatened and criticised me, tribunal counsel, and the personnel of the tribunal’’. The newly-elected Garda Representative Association (GRA) president, Michael O’Boyce, acknowledged that Morris’s latest report had highlighted indefensible conduct by some members of his association. O’Boyce, however, insists that the underlying culture is changing. There can be little doubt that, as recently as ten years ago, the culture at the time permitted rogue gardaí to administer arbitrary and unjust targeting of members of the public at a whim. Donegal was the classic example. When cattle dealer Riche Barron was found dead on October 14,1996, it was first believed that he was the victim of a hit-and-run. Within days, gardaí inexplicably redesignated the case to a murder inquiry. Almost eight weeks later, Frank McBrearty jnr, his publican father Frank snr and cousin Mark McConnell were arrested by gardaí probing Barron’s death - kick-starting a campaign of intimidation against the McBreartys’ extended family and several associates. The case remained under the radar for almost two years, until then-Fine Gael and Labour Justice spokesmen Jim Higgins and Brendan Howlin alerted then justice minister John O’Donoghue to claims of garda wrongdoing in Donegal. It would be a further two years before a tribunal of inquiry was set up to probe the claims. The tribunal heard evidence in public session for the first time inMay 2003. Since 2004, the Morris Tribunal has published six reports that have been damning of garda conduct in the region. The initial report found that Garda Superintendent Kevin Lennon and Detective Garda Noel McMahon had planted ammunition and hoax explosives. Morris’s second report a year later described the garda investigation into Barron’s death as an ‘‘extraordinary shambles’’. In August 2006, Morris released three further reports, noting corruption in investigations into the planting of explosive devices near a television mast, the ‘discovery’ of a gun at a Travellers’ site at Burnfoot in Donegal, and the manufacturing of evidence against Frank McBrearty jnr’s father, Frank snr. At the release of the trio of reports, Morris delivered his hardest-hitting comments, saying he had been ‘‘staggered’’ at the amount of insubordination and ‘‘mischief-making’’ by members in the force. Last week’s report - which examined well-worn issues of intimidation against the McBrearty family and their associates - is not likely to have the same negative effect on public confidence that the 2006 releases did. The head of the Garda Inspectorate, Kathleen O’Toole, and the GSOC, have chosen to add no further comment to Morris’s critique of policing culture in the 1990s. While it has yet to report on any specific case, the establishment last year of the GSOC is expected to play a major role in diminishing roguery among sections of An Garda Síochána into the future. The new office of Confidential Recipient, headed by Brian McCarthy, former secretary general to President Mary McAleese, permitting whistleblowers within the force to expose alleged corruption within their ranks, has untapped scope. So far, the GSOC has 750 allegations of criminal wrongdoing by Garda members on its caseload. Of these, nine have been forwarded to the Director of Public Prosecutions, James Hamilton, and are awaiting h is decision on whether charges should be brought. As it stands, there is no proper measure of the extent of contemporary wrongdoing within the force. However, it may be only a matter of months, or even weeks, before the GSOC’s powers to search, arrest and question gardaí will bear public fruition in terms of criminal charges being brought against rogue gardaí. Morris Report: key points In the latest of the six reports of Mr Justice Frederick Morris, probing claims of criminal wrongdoing by gardaí in Donegal, he expressed his concern with ‘‘the potential for catastrophic injustice that arises when laws are flouted, protections are abandoned and lies told by some gardaí in pursuit of those whom they regard as guilty.” Morris’s report, published by former minister for justice Brian Lenihan, is unlikely to gain the same momentum that his last trio of simultaneously released reports did in 2006. Commenting on the specific failures in the investigation into the hit-and-run of Raphoe cattle dealer Richie Barron in 1996, Morris said that the ‘‘unhealthy focus or tunnel vision in the course of the Barron investigation led to manufactured evidence, wrongful arrests and completely improper behaviour by gardaí towards prisoners in their custody. It cheapened the presumption of innocence and undermined the truthful resolution of a very tragic case.” On the personal impact on those affected, he said: ‘‘it dominated the lives and struck at the reputations of two families: the extended Quinn family and the McBrearty family. It did serious damage to the reputation of An Garda Síochána, and its integrity and professionalism.” The tribunal examined best practice internationally in interviewing suspects, and set out the relevant law in relation to confessions. It recommended the PEACE model of interviewing witnesses and suspects, used in Britain, be adopted by the Garda. It also recommended that a national committee made up of representatives of the Garda, the Offices of the Attorney General and the Director of Public Prosecutions, the Human Rights Commission, civil liberties groups and legal practitioners be set up to consider the issues raised relating to interviewing witnesses and suspects. Morris has affixed May 28 as the deadline for submissions of all applications for costs arising from the most recent report into garda wrongdoing.
Time up for rogue gardaí? 11 May 2008 Sunday Business Post Moves have been made to convince the public that wrongdoing has been tackled in the Garda Síochána, but has enough been done, asks Public Affairs Correspondent John Burke. It should have been a great week for the Gardai. The force mounted one of the biggest raids in the history of the state last Thursday. Following months of careful planning, armed detectives and CAB officers raided homes and offices in Operation Platinum, which is targetting Limerick’s criminal gangs. But instead of basking in the glory of this anti-crime offensive, gardai were in the spotlight due to the latest report from the Morris Tribunal into policing in Donegal. Despite government assurances that safeguards are now in place to tackle allegations of garda wrongdoing, recent controversies continue to challenge public confidence in the force. Mr Justice Frederick Morris’s latest salvo against Donegal gardaí strongly criticised the intimidation of the wider McBrearty family and their associates, who were wrongly targeted following the death in a hit-and-run of Raphoe cattle-dealer Richie Barron in 1996. And, crucially, Morris concluded that the deficiencies observed are not particular to Donegal. But one does not have to go back to the mid-1990s to find allegations of garda wrongdoing, and it is the catalogue of controversies which has undermined public confidence and pose a challenge to the incoming Minister for Justice, Dermot Ahern. Just last month, an inquiry into the death of 14-year-old Brian Rossiter following the teenager’s arrest by gardaí in September 2002, was published in part by then minister for justice Brian Lenihan. Senior Counsel Hugh Hartnett’s report concluded that the child had been unlawfully detained by gardaí in Clonmel, Co Tipperary. Although the report found no evidence that the youth was assaulted while in garda custody, this newspaper revealed last October that two British forensic experts concluded that Rossiter had received his fatal injury either just before or during his time in garda custody. A post-mortem examination showed Rossiter had a massive abrasion on the left side of his head, although none of 30 witnesses to the private inquiry could recall seeing the marking. Independent forensic pathologist Professor Anthony Butussil, from the University of Edinburgh, noted that this bruising should have been highly visible if the trauma occurred earlier, coinciding with an assault on Rossiter by an older local man two days earlier. In a further, broad-ranging, analysis of garda detention, the report of the Council of Europe’s expert Committee on the Prevention of Torture (CPT), published last November, highlighted the niggling concerns of many front-line workers that the problems of garda indiscipline have not disappeared. The CPT delegation said that while most of those interviewed had no complaints about their period of garda detention, the international panel of psychiatrists and law enforcement experts did report, however, that ‘‘as had been the case during previous visits, a considerable number of persons did allege verbal and or physical ill-treatment by gardaí”. The specifics of allegations against gardaí included the claim by one detainee at Dublin’s Cloverhill Prison that a garda had tried to break one of his fingers. One of the delegation’s doctors examined the finger and found it had become ‘deformed’ due to recent trauma. Similarly, at St Patrick’s Institution for Young Offenders, a prisoner alleged that he was struck with a baton on his wrists and hands by a garda while handcuffed. Almost identical allegations were made against members of the force by persons held in Cloverhill and Mountjoy jails. Provisions contained in the 1997 Electronic Recording of Interview Regulations require those on specific serious charges to be subject to audio-video recording during garda interrogation - something which the committee said was ‘‘a significant contributing factor to reducing the amount of ill-treatment alleged’’. Worryingly, those who were not subject to audio-visual recording ‘‘ran a greater risk of ill-treatment by garda officers - particularly the case when the suspects are foreign and/ or drug addicts,” the CPT said. A total of 232 interview rooms in 130 garda stations have been equipped for the electronic recording of interviews and are now operational, according to the latest figures. Gardaí say almost 98 per cent of interviews with detained persons are recorded. Last Wednesday, as he handed over the reins of the department to Dermot Ahern, Lenihan said that since the mid-1990s, much had changed within the policing community. The creation of the Garda Ombudsman Commission (GSOC); an official whistleblower’s liaison for members of the force; and new internal garda disciplinary regulations, have dramatically altered garda accountability. However, controversies from the past continue to dog the Gardai, and few have been more damaging than events in Donegal. The latest of Morris’s six reports into garda wrongdoing in Donegal was made even more controversial by its release on the day the new cabinet took their seals of office. Despite the changes to policing management, Morris’s report pulled few punches. His substantive conclusions were that several people arrested in connection with Richie Barron’s death were mistreated in garda custody. Many were unlawfully arrested, Morris also concluded. More worrying was the much-quoted observation about the deficiencies observed not being peculiar to Donegal. Morris’s report led to the prompt issue of an apology by Garda Commissioner Fachtna Murphy to the extended McBrearty family. Although Morris’s report is further vindication for Frank McBrearty jnr and his family, the businessman responded angrily to elements - perhaps illustrating the complexity of the issue and the family’s longstanding discontent with issues relating to the tribunal’s work. McBrearty jnr insisted that the €1.5 million compensation package he received from the state proved he had not exaggerated what happened to him in custody. As revealed in The Sunday Business Post earlier this year, the state’s final payout to extended members of his family and friends, who were directly or indirectly victimised as a consequence of the garda action, will come to over €12 million, excluding costs. Criticising McBrearty jnr’s conduct during the tribunal hearings, Morris said that the businessman ‘‘used foul language, was argumentative and abusive, threatened and criticised me, tribunal counsel, and the personnel of the tribunal’’. The newly-elected Garda Representative Association (GRA) president, Michael O’Boyce, acknowledged that Morris’s latest report had highlighted indefensible conduct by some members of his association. O’Boyce, however, insists that the underlying culture is changing. There can be little doubt that, as recently as ten years ago, the culture at the time permitted rogue gardaí to administer arbitrary and unjust targeting of members of the public at a whim. Donegal was the classic example. When cattle dealer Riche Barron was found dead on October 14,1996, it was first believed that he was the victim of a hit-and-run. Within days, gardaí inexplicably redesignated the case to a murder inquiry. Almost eight weeks later, Frank McBrearty jnr, his publican father Frank snr and cousin Mark McConnell were arrested by gardaí probing Barron’s death - kick-starting a campaign of intimidation against the McBreartys’ extended family and several associates. The case remained under the radar for almost two years, until then-Fine Gael and Labour Justice spokesmen Jim Higgins and Brendan Howlin alerted then justice minister John O’Donoghue to claims of garda wrongdoing in Donegal. It would be a further two years before a tribunal of inquiry was set up to probe the claims. The tribunal heard evidence in public session for the first time inMay 2003. Since 2004, the Morris Tribunal has published six reports that have been damning of garda conduct in the region. The initial report found that Garda Superintendent Kevin Lennon and Detective Garda Noel McMahon had planted ammunition and hoax explosives. Morris’s second report a year later described the garda investigation into Barron’s death as an ‘‘extraordinary shambles’’. In August 2006, Morris released three further reports, noting corruption in investigations into the planting of explosive devices near a television mast, the ‘discovery’ of a gun at a Travellers’ site at Burnfoot in Donegal, and the manufacturing of evidence against Frank McBrearty jnr’s father, Frank snr. At the release of the trio of reports, Morris delivered his hardest-hitting comments, saying he had been ‘‘staggered’’ at the amount of insubordination and ‘‘mischief-making’’ by members in the force. Last week’s report - which examined well-worn issues of intimidation against the McBrearty family and their associates - is not likely to have the same negative effect on public confidence that the 2006 releases did. The head of the Garda Inspectorate, Kathleen O’Toole, and the GSOC, have chosen to add no further comment to Morris’s critique of policing culture in the 1990s. While it has yet to report on any specific case, the establishment last year of the GSOC is expected to play a major role in diminishing roguery among sections of An Garda Síochána into the future. The new office of Confidential Recipient, headed by Brian McCarthy, former secretary general to President Mary McAleese, permitting whistleblowers within the force to expose alleged corruption within their ranks, has untapped scope. So far, the GSOC has 750 allegations of criminal wrongdoing by Garda members on its caseload. Of these, nine have been forwarded to the Director of Public Prosecutions, James Hamilton, and are awaiting h is decision on whether charges should be brought. As it stands, there is no proper measure of the extent of contemporary wrongdoing within the force. However, it may be only a matter of months, or even weeks, before the GSOC’s powers to search, arrest and question gardaí will bear public fruition in terms of criminal charges being brought against rogue gardaí. Morris Report: key points In the latest of the six reports of Mr Justice Frederick Morris, probing claims of criminal wrongdoing by gardaí in Donegal, he expressed his concern with ‘‘the potential for catastrophic injustice that arises when laws are flouted, protections are abandoned and lies told by some gardaí in pursuit of those whom they regard as guilty.” Morris’s report, published by former minister for justice Brian Lenihan, is unlikely to gain the same momentum that his last trio of simultaneously released reports did in 2006. Commenting on the specific failures in the investigation into the hit-and-run of Raphoe cattle dealer Richie Barron in 1996, Morris said that the ‘‘unhealthy focus or tunnel vision in the course of the Barron investigation led to manufactured evidence, wrongful arrests and completely improper behaviour by gardaí towards prisoners in their custody. It cheapened the presumption of innocence and undermined the truthful resolution of a very tragic case.” On the personal impact on those affected, he said: ‘‘it dominated the lives and struck at the reputations of two families: the extended Quinn family and the McBrearty family. It did serious damage to the reputation of An Garda Síochána, and its integrity and professionalism.” The tribunal examined best practice internationally in interviewing suspects, and set out the relevant law in relation to confessions. It recommended the PEACE model of interviewing witnesses and suspects, used in Britain, be adopted by the Garda. It also recommended that a national committee made up of representatives of the Garda, the Offices of the Attorney General and the Director of Public Prosecutions, the Human Rights Commission, civil liberties groups and legal practitioners be set up to consider the issues raised relating to interviewing witnesses and suspects. Morris has affixed May 28 as the deadline for submissions of all applications for costs arising from the most recent report into garda wrongdoing.