Gardaí say law inadequate and ‘favours criminal behaviour’

THE largest Garda staff association has said the laws are “out of balance” and “tipped in favour” of criminal behaviour.

The Garda Representative Association (GRA) made the claim after a jury earlier this month found a teenager not guilty of the manslaughter of Garda Robbie McCallion.

The young garda was killed when Jamie McGrenaghan struck him with his car while trying to escape from a garda road block in Letterkenny, Co Donegal, on March 26, 2009.

Garda McCallion’s family, including his father Bob, mother Nancy, sisters Noirín and Deirdre and girlfriend Marie O’Donnell, were in the Letterkenny Court House to hear the verdict and were visibly upset with the outcome.

The jury at Letterkenny District Court instead found 19-year-old McGrenaghan guilty of dangerous driving causing death. He was later sentenced to seven years, with one suspended, by Judge John O’Hagan.

A statement read after the sentence by the late Garda McCallion’s brother-in-law Marty Roughneen said the family were very disappointed with the verdict.

There was public debate after Judge O’Hagan directed the jury to coldly deliberate their verdict and ignore the fact that Robbie McCallion was a garda.

Both Fine Gael and Labour said a garda on duty should have special status and that this should be protected under the law.

In an editorial in the Garda Review, the GRA journal, association general secretary PJ Stone said: “Garda Robbie McCallion was performing his sworn duty on behalf of the Irish people, when he was killed by a criminal attempting to flee the law.”

Breaking the GRA’s silence on the case, Mr Stone said neither the jury nor the judge can be faulted as they applied the letter of the law. But he said the case “highlighted the insufficiency of the law” in protecting uniformed gardaí who only have a “uniform, a baton and an incapacitant spray”.

“The law dictates that juries should not get entranced because the victim was a garda. In other jurisdictions, police officers would not hesitate to draw a firearm and discharge a warning shot, before using it to prevent the escape.

“They would be fully supported by their laws to act accordingly. We contend our laws are now out of balance and tipped to favour criminal behaviour.”

Mr Stone extended the GRA’s sympathies to the McCallion family and said the tragedy was the “dark worry that daren’t be spoken by all garda families”.

“We demand the law is changed to protect gardaí. We require statutory instruments to protect our members when they go out and face the perils of modern Ireland on behalf of the Irish people,” he said.