Garda lied about being at flat, sergeant tells court

A garda sergeant has today said that a member of her unit accused of trespass and assault admitted lying about being in a Basin Street flat a week after the alleged incident.

Sergeant Collette Wheeler said Garda Claire Delaney told her she had not been in any flat about an hour after a woman, whom she now knows as Fidelma Gaffney, came into the station and spoke of her son being assaulted by gardaí.

Sgt Wheeler told Mr Patrick McGrath BL, prosecuting, that a week later Gda Delaney was called to the station to see if she wished to make a report about the alleged incident, which was then under investigation, and she apologised for lying about not being in the flat.

The sergeant said Gda Delaney told her that she had been there, but she hadn’t seen anything because she wasn’t in the room.

Gardaí Delaney, Alan Conlon, Eoin Murtagh and Sean O’Leary have pleaded not guilty to forcing entry at a Basin Street Upper premises, entering as a trespasser and assaulting Mr Owen Gaffney (aged 21) causing him harm on February 17, 2008.

Gdi Murtagh, Conlon and Delaney have also pleaded not guilty to the false imprisonment of Ms Fidelma Gaffney on the same occasion.

Sgt Wheeler told Mr McGrath that she had not been aware of any garda search or any member of her unit being called to a Basin Street flat that day.

She said she met Gdi O’Leary and Delaney in Kilmainham station about an hour after a lady had come to the counter looking to speak to the superintendent about a garda assault.

She said both gardaí admitted being around Basin Street that day but denied they’d been in a flat.

She said Gda O’Leary told her “no way” had he been in the flat and that nothing like that happened when she put it to him that the lady had named him as one of the gardaí present during an incident.

Sgt Wheeler said Gda Murtagh told her when she noticed scrapes on his knuckles that he’d been in a fist fight with a youth during a public order incident but had let this male “get the better of him” because he had no handcuffs.

She told Mr McGrath that while there was a record on the Garda PULSE System of a public order incident on James Street on February 16, 2008, there was no record of Gda Murtagh’s or Mr Gaffney’s involvement.

She said there was also no record on the system of Mr Gaffney threatening Gda Conlon in a separate incident.

She said if gardaí use their batons it’s customary practice for them to file a report outlining why, but she didn’t receive any such reports after the alleged incident.

She added that if a garda makes an assault allegation, the investigation would be carried out by a sergeant or higher up and she was not aware of any other sergeant being asked to investigate an assault on Gda Murtagh.

Sgt Wheeler told Mr McGrath that Mr Gaffney had never been arrested or charged for an assault on Gda Murtagh, nor had he been arrested or charged with any threat against Gda Conlon.

The sergeant agreed with Mr Conor Devally, defending Gda Murtagh, that she was aware the two gardaí involved in the recorded public order incident on February 16 supported his client’s full account of what had happened.

She rejected a suggestion by Mr Remy Farrell BL, defending Gda Delaney, that his client had remained silent during the conversation an hour after Ms Gaffney came into the station in which she said both Gda Delaney and O’Leary had denied being in the flat.

The trial continues before Judge Desmond Hogan and a jury of six men and six women.