‘Wrong for gardaí to inform locals about sex offender’

IT was not considered appropriate for gardaí to notify neighbours that a convicted sex offender is living among them a garda superintendent told the High Court yesterday.

While gardaí would take “sensible precautions” to protect the community in such circumstances, there would be “a big risk” that telling local people could create “hysteria” and lead to vigilantism, Supt Michael E Maher said.

If any member of the garda leaked information to the media that a convicted rapist, James O’Donoghue, was living with some relatives in Ballybunion, Co Kerry, in 1999, that member would have been acting without authorisation and in breach of the garda regulations, Chief Supt Maher, the officer in charge of the district containing Ballybunion, said.