Recent events show we need an independent police ombudsman

THE story of Frank Shortt and his family represents more than a miscarriage of justice.

It may, just may, represent the turning point in our relationship as a community with the Garda Siochana.

When one reads what happened in this appalling case, it seems at first sight to have been the work of two or perhaps three gardai, in cahoots with each other, and also in some sort of unhealthy alliance of co-dependency leading to a malign and cancerous conspiracy.