Minister to contact garda chief over complaints board concerns

JUSTICE Minister Michael McDowell yesterday said he would be contacting the Garda Commissioner following concerns raised in the annual report of the Garda Complaints Board (GCB).

GCB chairman Gordon Holmes said it was “totally unacceptable” that investigations into 21 complaints against officers from 2001 had still not been completed by the investigating gardaí.

Speaking after the publication of the report, Mr McDowell said: “I fully agree with Mr Holmes and I intend to raise his concerns with the Commissioner because this is unacceptable that there should be that length of delay.

“Obviously, I am not aware of individual cases myself so I can’t say that each and every delay is wholly unjustified, but the pattern is worrying.”

Mr Holmes pointed out yesterday that “quite a number” of other late reports only arrived in GCB offices last December after he informed investigators that he would be mentioning the matter in the annual report.

The report also highlighted a case where the GCB wrote to a senior investigating officer nine times looking for his report, but to no avail.

“He ignored every one of them. In fairness the Garda Commissioner dealt firmly with that and the high-ranking garda officer was disciplined. I’m not certain what happened, but he received a very substantial fine and rightly so.”

Mr Holmes said the priority gardaí assigned to investigating complaints was always a subject of some concern.

The GCB chairman said he was not happy with the Commissioner’s response to concerns he raised regarding a case highlighted on an RTÉ Prime Time programme last January.

Mr Holmes had asked Commissioner Noel Conroy why a letter written by Government minister Dick Roche supporting allegations by Michael Gaffney that he was beaten up in custody was not included in the report to GCB.

“The Commissioner has answered. Am I happy with it? Not particularly, no,” said Mr Holmes.

He said there were instances where gardaí complained of had “played the system” by mounting legal challenges delaying proceedings until they had retired, after which the GCB could do nothing.

The report said the number of complaints fell from 1,405 in 2002 to 1,175 in 2003. Some 532 cases were deemed inadmissible. Of these, 142 were vexatious, a three-fold rise on 2002.

In addition, 265 cases were withdrawn and 33 were resolved informally. In all, 27 cases resulted in disciplinary action. Commissioner Conroy had no comment yesterday.