Sex attack case settled with cash and meal voucher

An investigation into alleged sexual assault and false imprisonment was settled by a probationary garda who facilitated the payment of €150 from a suspect to a complainant.

The handling of the case, which was the subject of an internal Garda investigation, was deemed by an assistant commissioner not to be worthy of even disciplinary action, according to documents seen by the Irish Examiner.

The case is just one of a dozen criminal investigations being examined by Government-appointed barrister Sean Guerin to determine if a full commission of inquiry is needed to conduct a full investigation.

All the cases were brought to the attention of the Government through Sergeant Maurice McCabe, one of the Garda whistleblowers.

In the case in question, four men allegedly terrorised a minibus taxi in the early hours of the morning of February 25, 2007, including sexually assaulting several passengers.

The driver and owner of the bus, Lorraine Browne, made a complaint about the incident, which was never followed up.

However, sometime later, she was contacted by the investigating garda and told the suspect had offered her an amount of cash and a meal voucher by way of compensation.

She refused the offer, but after the garda told her there was little chance of the matter ever going to court, she accepted and agreed to withdraw her statement.

“He said that nothing would come of the case,” Ms Browne told the Irish Examiner.

“I wanted to go the whole way with it. In my eyes it was very serious but he was so determined to tell me that it wasn’t going to go anywhere. I was very taken aback.”

Ms Browne was then asked to withdraw her statement of complaint, a highly unusual move in the course of such an investigation. The case was then listed as being “amicably resolved”.

The case was handled by an officer during his probationary period, and the conduct of the investigation was a subject of a complaint from Sergeant McCabe, who was based in the same station. In a subsequent investigation, assistant commissioner Derek Byrne found that there was “no breach of discipline” uncovered into the handling of the case. There was also an attempt by the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission to investigate the matter, but a failure to gain co-operation from all the parties saw that investigation fail.

Mr Guerin is expected to report in the next week into all the criminal cases he was appointed to review. At the end of the process, it is expected that he will recommend either no further action or the establishment of a statutory commission of inquiry to fully examine the cases.