Gardaí not required to video record interviews

GARDAÍ are not obliged to use video recording equipment when interviewing suspects, according to one of Ireland’s leading experts in criminal law.

Even when suspects request it, the interrogators are under no legal obligation to record interviews, according to Professor Dermot Walsh, director of the Centre for Criminal Justice.

Justice Minister Michael McDowell has said he wants to make the use of video recording compulsory in view of the collapse of recent, high-profile trials where statements given to gardaí were later disputed or retracted.