GSOC could not fully probe sex claim

The Garda Ombudsman could not fully investigate a complaint that gardaí had not properly followed up child sex abuse allegations, as it does not have the power to obtain vital phone records in such a case.

The complaint to GSOC centred around a claim by a man in his 40s that gardaí did not launch an investigation after he made a statement to gardaí in December 2000 about abuse by two brothers in a Christian Brothers School.

GSOC had to classify the alleged non-investigation of child abuse as a Garda disciplinary matter, which, under GSOC legislation, meant it was “not of a serious criminal nature” and therefore, Garda phone records could not be demanded.