Judge lashes out at ‘regular garda interview breaches’

A SUPREME Court judge yesterday criticised the gardaí, saying they regularly avoided recording interviews, made selective notes and breached clear regulations in the belief such breaches would attract nothing worse than a judicial rebuke.

Mr Justice Adrian Hardiman said calls by judges for gardaí to comply with the rules on the treatment of people in custody has yielded little result.

His comments were contained in a judgment quashing the conviction of 64-year-old John Diver, who was jailed for life for the murder of his wife Geraldine.

Mr Diver a former hospital porter, of Kilnamanagh Road, Walkinstown, Dublin, was convicted in November 2000 of the murder of his wife Geraldine on December 2, 1996. The prosecution alleged he strangled his wife in her car after learning she was having an affair.

The Supreme Court held the trial judge was wrong to admit alleged statements of Mr Diver following interviews in garda custody.

In the conduct of those interviews, there had been “grave, obvious and deliberate breaches of garda regulations regarding the treatment of person in custody”, Mr Justice Hardiman said. Denials by Mr Diver had not been not recorded.

The main reason the conviction was overturned yesterday was because of conflicting evidence by Mr Diver’s children at the trial regarding their father’s movements on the night of his wife’s murder and the evidence of a teenage neighbour, Paul Maher.

Mr Justice Hardiman said he failed to understand the basis for the trial judge’s refusal to allow the prosecution call evidence from a garda who had taken a statement from Mr Diver’s daughter Laura in 1996.

The garda press office said last night they would not comment because an appeal is pending.