Gardaí 'too busy fighting gangland feuds'

Gangland feuding has become so widespread Limerick city that ordinary garda investigations are suffering, it was claimed today.

Huge pressure on officers in Limerick means that many cannot even take their annual leave.

The claims came just a day after the dramatic collapse of a Limerick murder trial in which a string of prosecution witnesses denied making their previous statements.

Paul Brown, Limerick member of the Garda Representative Association, said: “Limerick stands unique in the sense that there are a number of people and a number of families and related people involved here.

“What is happening here is that the vast majority of Garda resources are being put into the investigations of these murders that take place and also vast resources are being put into attempting to prevent these issues ever taking place.”

He said this was preventing gardai from tending to the ordinary policing needs of the public in the city.

“We find ourselves in a situation here whereby our members cannot even partake in annual leave because, the fact of the matter is, they can’t walk away from very serious investigations,” he added.

“It is putting huge pressures on them. It is putting huge pressures on the policing needs of the rest of the community.”

Justice minister Michael McDowell promised a major review of the courts system after the murder trial collapsed yesterday.

Limerick man Liam Keane walked free from court in Dublin after a key prosecution witness denied making statements identifying him as the killer.

This was the sixth prosecution witness in the trial to deny making such statements and identifying Mr Keane as the murderer.

Mr Keane, 19, had pleaded not guilty to the murder of Eric Leamy in Limerick in 2001.