Ombudsman creates office to investigate domestic and sexual abuse complaints against gardaí

Garda Commissioner Justin Kelly has revealed that last month there were 17 gardaí on suspension due to complaints of domestic violence and coercive control

It is understood that the unit was put in place by Fiosrú following the guilty plea last year by Garda Trevor Bolger (pictured) for the 2012 assault of his then wife, Margaret Loftus. File photo: Collins Courts

A specialist unit has been set up within the office of the garda ombudsman to handle complaints of domestic and sexual abuse by gardaí.

The ombudsman office, Fiosrú, said a “specialist services unit” was established to investigate incidents, including public complaints, where a garda is accused of domestic violence, coercive control, abuse of power for sexual purposes, child sexual abuse or sexual assault.

In a statement, Fiosrú added: “The unit also investigates public complaints where it is alleged that a garda failed to properly investigate incidents of this nature.” 

It is understood that the unit was put in place following the guilty plea last year by Garda Trevor Bolger for the 2012 assault of his then wife, Margaret Loftus. In January, Bolger was given a three-month fully suspended jail sentence for the assault.

Garda Commissioner Justin Kelly revealed in a report to the Policing and Community Safety Authority for February that there were 17 gardaí on suspension due to complaints of domestic violence and coercive control.

A further 10 were on suspension on foot of allegations of sexual assault or sexual misconduct.

Ms Loftus welcomed the setting up of the specialist services team, saying: “I have watched it for years, and have been listening to women for years about this. This is progress.” 

Garda handling of cases

Fiosrú confirmed the setting up of the specialist unit as one woman who has been arrested four times on foot of complaints made against her by her husband, whom she claims was coercively controlling her, has had a complaint of the garda handling of her case deemed admissible by Fiosrú.

The woman's most recent arrest was in the past week — just days before Fiosrú informed her that a complaint she has made about the garda handling of her allegations of domestic abuse and coercive control by her husband was admissible.

The woman says her arrests relate to breaches of a domestic violence order her husband secured against her.  She also has a domestic violence order in place against her husband.

In her complaint to Fiosrú, seen by the Irish Examiner, the woman says her husband “is mis-using protection orders to control and harass me and he is being facilitated to do this” by gardaí.

The woman is the latest of a number of women who have come forward to the Irish Examiner in recent weeks to highlight concerns about how their complaints of domestic abuse were handled.

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Among those were two from the Cork area whose complaints have also been deemed admissible by Fiosrú. 

In December, human rights lawyer and former chief executive of Dublin Rape Crisis Centre, Noeline Blackwell, was appointed as an expert adviser to Fiosrú on domestic, sexual and gender-based violence.

In making the announcement, Police Ombudsman Emily Logan said: “Our role as an independent oversight body is to work to improve the safety of victims of domestic/sexual abuse and the policing response through our investigation of complaints.

"These include both complaints about the adequacy of An Garda Síochána’s response to domestic abuse/sexual violence incidents and also complaints about Garda members as perpetrators.”