GSOC: Likely Clare Daly arrest details leaked
The investigation report states there was “insufficient evidence” of a criminal offence by any individual to warrant sending a file to the DPP.
The report says the Dublin North TD — who was arrested in January 2013, but found to have been driving within the limit — was entitled to the presumption of innocence and the right to privacy, and that these rights “appear to have been infringed” by the release of information.
The report summarises the findings of its investigation into two complaints made by Ms Daly: That her arrest was leaked and that her request to have deputy Mick Wallace informed of her arrest was also leaked.
A third complaint — that she had been handcuffed without proper cause — is still under investigation.
“At the conclusion of the investigation, the Ombudsman Commission considered that there was insufficient evidence of a criminal offence by any individual to warrant sending a file to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions,” states the report.
“However, while it is not possible to state that this information was released by a particular garda or any other identifiable person, there does appear to be sufficient evidence to state, on the balance of probabilities, that some of the detail relating to Deputy Daly’s arrest emanated from within the Garda Síochána organisation and were made available to the media in an unauthorised manner.”
It says the information could have come from either gardaí or civilian staff.
Ms Daly was stopped on the South Circular Rd in Dublin’s south inner city just after midnight on January 29, 2013, after allegedly taking an illegal turn.
A garda suspected she was driving under the influence. She was unable to give an adequate breath specimen, and was arrested and taken to Kilmainham Garda Station for a urine sample.
There were recorded contacts from the media to the Garda Press Office from lunchtime that day.
The report found that between the creation of a Pulse incident report at 2.03am on January 29 and 2.09pm, there were 36 separate transactions on that incident from 24 people. The report says some of these inquiries appeared “particularly unusual”.
The report says a sum total of 145 people potentially had knowledge of this.
In relation to Ms Daly asking gardaí to contact a certain number, which turned out to be that of Mr Wallace, the report says 145 people (gardaí and civilians) had potentially been informed of this by the end of the day.
The report examined phone contacts between an Irish Daily Mail journalist and a detective garda, and a Twitter account held by the same garda.
The report says contacts between the garda and the journalist “aroused suspicion” and it “considered” seeking a search warrant in relation to the garda “but ultimately decided not to”.
Responding, Ms Daly said the report had found in her favour that the leak came from a garda or a civilian employee.
“That was what we sought,” she told RTE. “We hadn't sought any individual prosecution.”
She told RTE she would like “an apology” from the Garda Commissioner.
She said her civil proceedings were continuing and believed the “favourable outcome” of the GSOC investigation assisted that.
Damien McCarthy, Garda Representative Association official representing Dublin South Central, told the Irish Examiner the findings of the GSOC report were “not a fair assessment or conclusion”, particularly after three years of investigation.
He said the overall investigation was somewhat “tarnished” and claimed gardai under investigation were not kept informed, unlike the complainant.
He also called for the Dail record to be “corrected”, referring to a letter that was read into the record by independent TD Mick Wallace, which Mr McCarthy said wrongly created the impression gardai were not cooperating with the investigation.
