Policing agency to defend homicide handling

The chair of the independent Policing Authority will today strongly defend its decision not to reach out and speak to two civilian Garda analysts “attacked and belittled” by senior officers over incorrect homicide figures.

Josephine Feehily will say that the concerns expressed by the analysts — Lois West and Laura Galligan — were “already known to us before their contact”.

Ms Feehily will also argue that following her body’s intervention, 12 out of 41 cases highlighted have been upgraded to homicide by gardaí. In addition, she will tell the Oireachtas justice committee that a further 16 cases “had some change made to their classification, meaning that only 13 are unchanged”.