Garda changes aim to prevent abuse

MAJOR changes are taking place within the gardaí to ensure Donegal-style abuses don’t happen again, the Garda Commissioner and the Justice Minister have said.

Noel Conroy and Michael McDowell were responding to last week’s revelations at the Morris Tribunal concerning garda mistreatment of suspects interviewed in connection with the death of Riche Barron in 1996.

They said changes underway include:

* A new custody record system on the proper treatment of suspects.

* A new computer system to provide data and documentation on decisions made in an investigation.

* A directive that all interviews be recorded on tape and on video.

Mr McDowell said: “I’m not here to judge the truth or untruth of witnesses, but I think that most people viewing what they’ve seen over the last few days in the Morris Tribunal will be gravely concerned.”

Two gardaí - Detective Garda John Dooley and Detective Sergeant John White - sensationally retracted statements that they never abused Katrina Brolly and Roisín McConnell and confessed to mistreating them.

Det Sgt White alleged his superiors had made it clear to him at the time that his role was to break the suspects and claimed that the methods employed were similar to others over the years.

Responding to this, Mr Conroy said: “Of course it worries me, but I’ve been an operational policeman for many, many years and I can say that isn’t common as far as I’m concerned.”

Mr McDowell said: “I am not going to comment on the individual evidence of any witness, and Sgt White in particular, but I am of the view that if that behaviour was indicative of how people felt they could behave in Donegal it was a very grave matter indeed.

“With the Ombudsman Commission, the Garda Inspectorate and the new methods of accountability, I am very confident that the commissioner will be in a position to ensure that it never could occur again.”

Mr Conroy said: “There are major changes taking place since those people were detained in Letterkenny Garda Station, insofar as we now have audio-visual recording of interviews of all persons detained, that has been the direction from me and senior officers.”

He said he was due to publish soon a new custody record document on the proper treatment of suspects and that a new IT system would be put in place, which would record reasons for decisions made in an investigation.

Mr McDowell said 96% of interviews were now audio-visually recorded.

He added that murder investigations could not now start without a basis in fact, which, he said, appeared to have happened in the Riche Barron case.