GSOC publishes bugging report

The Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission has yielded to pressure and released an edited summary of its "fact-finding investigation" into how details of a suspected bugging of GSOC were leaked to The Sunday Times.

The summary shows Mark Connaughton, who carried out the investigation, concluded that The Sunday Times was given confidential information from a “person or persons” associated with the security investigation into the bugging that helped in the preparation of the article which ran last February.

It quotes Mr Connaughton as saying: “I have not been able to establish when he [Sunday Times journalist] received such information, from whom he received it, or indeed, the exact nature of the information disclosed. Indeed it is possible that he had a number of sources, some of which may have been external.”

The barrister said the journalist did not appear to have a copy of a confidential report prepared for GSOC following the bugging incident.

He said had its contents informed the article, “the exaggerated and incorrect claims made therein could not have been made.”

He said certain content in the article was so inaccurate that “one must surmise that either the actual findings of that sweep were deliberately exaggerated and conveyed that way [to the Sunday Times journalist] or there was a lack of understanding on the part of the source or sources and The Sunday Times journalist simply reported what had been revealed.”

The summary also shows that a number of mobile phones were examined and some communications from those phones, which may have been relevant, had been deleted. Nonetheless Mr Connaughton still had available “extensive records of calls and texts including those related to contact with the particular journalist”.

It shows 15 GSOC staff members, either past or present, were interviewed by Mr Connaughton, including people who, “with authorisation”, had spoken to The Sunday Times journalist in advance of the publication date and “who denied emphatically giving any information of or concerning the security sweep/investigation to the journalist”.

GSOC released limited details of the outcome of Mark Connaughton’s investigation last week.

However, Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald called on the watchdog to publish the report with sensitive personal data redacted.

Her predecessor, Alan Shatter claimed that by not publishing the report, GSOC “clearly intends to conceal its contents”.

In a prelude to its release last night, GSOC said it was of the view, “supported by the opinion of Mr Connaughton, that the content of the report in terms of operational, investigative and personal detail renders publication extremely difficult”.

It said it was issuing what it could “in order to alleviate any public concerns”.