Garda accountability - Force must remain transparent

The incoming president of the Garda Representative Association (GRA), Michael O’Boyce, launched a blistering and emotive attack on the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (GSOC) at the GRA’s annual conference in Carlow yesterday.

He accused the GSOC of behaving recklessly and having excelled itself in blundering incompetence.

Mr O’Boyce said officers of the GSOC might have contaminated vital evidence to be used in connection with a number of crime investigations in Limerick. Although he refused to disclose what cases were involved, he said the GSOC investigators “rooted through” the personal lockers of gardaí and seized all their contents including vital evidence, thereby possibly either “contaminating” or “compromising” evidence.