Fiosrú investigations led to jail sentences for two gardaí 

Fiosrú received 30 referrals from gardaí in relation to incidents of death or serious injury. These included nine road traffic incidents, four incidents in garda custody, seven apparent suicides, and six incidents of alleged sexual offence or abuse of power for a sexual purpose by a garda.

Two gardaí were given jail sentences for separate assaults on 17-year-old boys, while another garda was found in breach of discipline after a 17-year-old girl alleged he behaved in an inappropriate manner while drunk at a family home.

The three cases were among 67 investigations carried out by Fiosrú, the Police Ombudsman, where files were sent to the DPP. In its annual report for 2025, Fiosrú said the DPP directed against prosecution in 52 of the files, representing 78% of cases.

In 15 cases (22% of cases), it directed prosecution of gardaí in the courts.

The report said 10 of these cases were concluded in the reporting period from April 2025, when Fiosrú was established, to the close of December 2025.

In two cases gardaí were convicted. In one case the adult caution was given and in five cases the Probation Act was applied. In two cases, gardaí were acquitted.

The ten cases include:

• Fiosrú gathered CCTV which “clearly showed” a garda stopping and searching a 17-year-old, who was outside a maternity hospital where his partner was in labour, seizing his mobile phone and throwing it into a puddle before twice filling a disposable cup with dirty puddle water and pouring it over the youth’s trousers. The garda plead guilty in the courts and was sentenced to four months in jail for assault, reduced on appeal to 60 hours' community service;
• A garda was sentenced to three years in prison, with two years suspended, after being found guilty of serious assault on a 17-year-old boy in which the garda “flipped him upside down” while handcuffing him. The boy suffered a fractured skull and a brain bleed;
• A 17-year-old girl alleged an off-duty male garda behaved in an inappropriate manner towards her when he visited her family home in an inebriated state. The Garda Commissioner found him in breach of discipline;
• A Garda resigned and pleaded guilty to assaulting a member of the public at a fast-foot outlet. The garda, who was off-duty at the time, first claimed to gardaí that the person assaulted him, with the person arrested. CCTV showed the off-duty garda assaulted the person – and that this individual was trying to de-escalate the situation.

There was a total of 2,706 complaints in the reporting period. Almost 1,100 were about gardaí in Dublin, with the next highest number in Kildare/Carlow (141).

Cork City recorded 112 complaints and Cork County 84. Clare/Tipperary had 106, Limerick 94, Waterford/Kilkenny 97, and Kerry 70.

About half the complaints (1,440) were admissible and half of those (717) were referred back to gardaí for resolution.

Fiosrú received 30 referrals from gardaí in relation to incidents of death or serious injury. These included nine road traffic incidents, four incidents in garda custody, seven apparent suicides, and six incidents of alleged sexual offence or abuse of power for a sexual purpose by a garda.

Responding to a case in which a victim who experienced sustained harassment from former garda Paul Moody claimed she was met with silence from Fiosrú, the Police Ombudsman Emily Logan appeared to blame a "system" failure, rather than a failing of "any one individual" in Fiosrú.

She added that they had set up a dedicated Specialist Services Unit for such cases.

• Cormac O'Keefe is Security Correspondent.