Courts to screen gardaí interviews

GARDA interviews with suspects will soon be regularly shown on video screens in courtrooms under plans being progressed by the Department of Justice and a high-level internal committee of the Garda Síochána.

Justice Minister Brian Lenihan signalled at the weekend that the manual writing of statements by gardaí will come to an end as soon as possible in this term of government.

Mr Lenihan wants to see a system implemented where interviews and statements are recorded by video or digital camera and then played back in court.

Yesterday, the minister’s spokesman said that Mr Lenihan believed it would help the gardaí in terms of time-management and efficiency and would also assist the court process.

A high-level working group chaired by assistant commissioner Martin Donnellan has been looking at the logistics involved.

The group is expected to report back to Commissioner Noel Conroy shortly, although a timeframe on its roll out has to be agreed.

Another benefit is that complete transfer to video and audio records would help prevent some of the huge controversies and miscarriages of justice that have arisen in recent years in relation to the admissibility of written statements.

In a number of high-profile cases — including the Paul Ward murder trial, the gardaí corruption case in Donegal and the trial of Colin Murphy, the Co Louth-based Real IRA member arrested in connection with the Omagh bomb — allegations were made (and in some cases upheld) that written “confessions” were composed by gardaí to secure a conviction.

Electronic recording and showing would remove any doubt, ambiguity or admissibility issues when it came to nature of the confession.

According to the Department of Justice, almost every Garda station in the country is now fully kitted out with video and audio equipment and many of the higher courts have the facilities to show the recordings, although some would need to be renovated.

The legislative basis for such a radical change is provided by S57 of this year’s Criminal Justice Act.

It states that a court may admit in evidence “a recording by electronic or similar means or a transcript of such a recording” of the questioning of a person by a garda at a station.

Crucially, it also provides that the recording may be admitted as evidence in court though no part of it was taken down in writing.