Nine gardaí prosecuted in year
Nine Garda officers were prosecuted last year for offences including assault, perverting the course of justice and false imprisonment, it was revealed today.
At least four of the serving members were suspended from the force over their alleged crimes while a number of court proceedings are still pending.
The Garda Ombudsman, launching its annual report for 2008, said it sent 31 files to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) as part of its investigations during the year.
The DPP, in turn, sent 11 individuals identified in the cases forward to be prosecuted, one of whom was a Garda officer who was convicted for dangerous driving.
Another was a civilian, living in the north east, who is currently before the courts on charges of providing false and misleading information to the Ombudsman.
The remaining nine were all rank-and-file Garda officers, based in divisions around the State, including in Dublin, Cork and Galway.
The Garda Ombudsman said they were facing prosecution over assault, assault causing harm, perversion of the course of justice, forcible entry and false imprisonment.
The annual report also revealed:
:: The Garda Ombudsman received 4,227 complaints last year but 1,360 of these were deemed inadmissible.
:: About 80% of complaints were against rank-and-file Garda officers, with 14% against sergeants.
:: Dublin West, Dublin North and Dublin South Central had the highest number of complaints along with Louth/Meath and Waterford/Kilkenny.
However, it was stressed that the high number in Waterford/Kilkenny was effectively down to one or two people who are serial complainants.
Those multiple allegations in the south east led the Ombudsman to introduce a new policy that will remove such complainants from the statistics in future.
Garda Ombudsman Commissioner Conor Brady said most of the complaints against the force were low-level, like abuse of authority, neglect of duty and discourtesy.
But they were also dealing with some very serious allegations including assault charges, he added.
“We have some quite serious cases we are investigating but by and large the majority of gardaí go about their job decently and honestly,” he said.
The number of complaints is slightly up on the previous year but 2008 was the first full year the Garda Ombudsman was in operation, so they are not strictly comparable.
Mr Brady also pointed out that the scale of complaints against Garda officers is lower than experienced by their counterparts in the North and Britain.
In so-called section 102 referrals to the Ombudsman, where the conduct of a garda may have contributed to the death or serious harm of a person, cases were down from 245 over the nine months in 2007 to 129 last year.
While more than half were thrown out by the Ombudsman, some 82 cases remained under investigation at the end of the year.
Among these cases, 13 related to deaths, of which eight were as a result of road traffic incidents.
Dublin North Central, Dublin South Central, Louth/Meath and Limerick recorded the highest number of section 102 referrals.
The Garda Ombudsman noted there were two incidents where Taser stun guns were reported used by the force last year, in one case resulting in minor injury.
In both cases there was no Garda misbehaviour, it was found.
Ombudsman chairman Dermot Gallagher said there was generally widespread support and respect for the Garda but stressed the importance of an impartial body to hear complaints and allegations.
Mr Brady said the Garda Ombudsman’s role was not solely to prosecute offending officers but it had a preventative role and was there to improve accountability within the force.
The former newspaper editor added that relations were now generally very good between the Ombudsman and the force compared to the early days when it was set up in 2007.
