McBrearty scandal - No garda should not be above law
Until now, the reason the family was subjected to a protracted campaign of harassment by a cadre of gardaí has remained a mystery, it being popularly understood that it was linked to the unfortunate death of cattle dealer Richie Barron.
It transpires that, according to the family, the harassment was not linked to Mr Barron’s death but apparently sprung from a misconceived notion of retribution for a colleague, Sergeant Danny McHugh, who was forced to retire on foot of a legitimate complaint lodged against him by Frank McBrearty Snr.
That was five years prior to the death of Mr Barron in a hit-and-run accident, but it is symptomatic of the nature of the perversion that prevailed among those gardaí that that tragedy was appropriated to nefariously pursue the McBreartys and their extended family.
The Morris Tribunal was eventually established following complaints of garda harassment from the McBrearty family and it conclusively uncovered the scandalous persecution perpetrated by the gardaí in Donegal.
An internal garda investigation failed to do so, or would not do so.
That, as well as the fashion in which two senior officers were allowed retire with a golden handshake and a pension, but no consequences for their role in this affair, illustrates the need for an independent ombudsman to oversee the gardaí.
Garda Commissioner Noel Conroy was wrong to allow those senior officers to retire. They were judged in the second Morris Tribunal report as being partly to blame for the “prejudiced, tendentious and utterly negligent” investigation into Mr Barron’s death.
The McBrearty scandal will probably cost the taxpayers at least €15 million, and they are well entitled to recover their costs and damages.
What it has cost the gardaí, and will continue to cost them, cannot be measured in financial terms, but rather in the level of confidence the public has in them.
It would be regrettable if a small group within the force was allowed dishonour the reputation and respect in which it is held, and it is incumbent on our justice system to ensure that it does not.
No matter what rank of garda was adjudged to be culpable in this charade of justice, then the full rigour of the law must be brought to bear on them.
In trying to pervert the course of justice which they had sworn to uphold, they have broken the faith of those they were entrusted to serve, and besmirched the concept that they were guardians of the peace.
Justice must be seen to be done, and that applies to those who are charged with upholding it.
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