Ex garda fined for leaking report to newspaper

Defence counsel Mr Padraig Dwyer SC submitted that his client spoke of being "ridiculed" by the media and "jeered at by his own peers" and had disclosed the draft report, which cleared gardaí of misconduct surrounding Mr Lyons’s false murder confessions, in a "self-serving" bid to "vindicate his own good name".

Mr Dwyer submitted to Judge Desmond Hogan that his client had been "obsessed" with clearing his name and "jumped the gun" by divulging the report’s findings before its final draft was sent to the Justice Minister.

McNulty, of The Close, Boden Park, Rathfarnham pleaded guilty to disclosing the draft report’s contents without consent on a date between July 10 and August 10, 2006.

Judge Hogan noted that the information released by McNulty related to himself and that he has since resigned his senior position in the gardai.

He imposed a 12-month suspended sentence and a €5,000 fine with three months to pay.

Detective Superintendent John McMahon said the Government set up the Dean Lyons Commission of Investigation under Mr George Birmingham SC (now Mr Justice Birmingham) to investigate Mr Lyons’s false confessions to two murders in the Grangegorman area in 1997.

Det Supt McMahon said McNulty and other colleagues had already been vindicated of misconduct in an internal inquiry and subsequent review.

He said Mr Birmingham sent the first draft of the commission’s report to 15 people, including McNulty, between July 10 and 11, 2006, before revising it, issuing a second draft and sending the final draft to the Justice Minister on July 28, 2006.

Det Supt McMahon told Mr McGinn that the Evening Herald published articles on August 10 and 11, 2006 containing direct quotes from the first five pages of the report’s initial draft.

Gardaí deduced that the quoted material came from the report’s first draft because the same content had been amended in subsequent drafts.

McNulty confirmed he had received the confidential document in a sealed envelope but denied he had contacted Mr McCaffrey or other journalists when he spoke with colleagues investigating the leak.

Det Supt McMahon said gardaí arrested McNulty and Mr McCaffrey when they found evidence of calls between the two men on the reporter’s phone.

He said gardaí matched the reporter’s fingerprints to three marks found on McNulty’s draft report.

The former garda was charged with disclosing the report on October 15, 2007 and suspended from the force since then until his retirement in July 2009.

Det Supt McMahon agreed with Mr Dywer that his client had been a serving member of An Garda Síochána since 1978 and was a "good officer" who "worked well".

Retired Det Supt PJ Browne described McNulty, his friend and colleague of 20 years, as a "very commendable, very reliable" member of the force who came under enormous pressure from the Dean Lyons investigations.

Det Supt Browne revealed that McNulty "looked at himself as being under suspicion at all times" during the internal garda inquiry but "came back to himself" when the investigations were over.

He agreed with Mr Dwyer that the "pressure" returned when the public inquiry began.

Det Supt Browne said: "My only belief is that he did it to clear his name", when Mr Dwyer asked him his opinion on McNulty’s motive for the leak.

Mr Dwyer (with Mr Breffni Gordon BL) submitted that McNulty, a married father-of-three with no previous convictions, had lost his reputation, his job, his health and the respect of his colleagues and the public.

He submitted that although his client had "jumped the gun" with leaking the report, the disclosure did not derail the commission or affect its work.