Is the Irish Police Service (Garda) an essential cog in the Organised Crime Network

The latest in the Garda satanic/paedophile ring in Dalkey and the terrible case of Cynthia Owen!

This is only the latest piece of the jigsaw, which makes one suspect that the Irish Police Service (The Garda) is an essential cog in the Organised Crime Network!

There is listed below - a catalogue of crimes and cover ups perpetrated by the Irish Police "Authority!"

After scrutinising the crimes listed below - the most naive and sceptical of readers cannot be in any doubt about the criminal complicity of the Garda!

You must ask yourself: "who could trust or "believe" a police "force" with a track record such as this?

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Former Garda Commissioner Pat Byrne bought his house from a well known Dublin criminal!

This spells out one thing to me The rank and file Gardai do not want rotten apples amongst them so they are prepared to have them arrested and processed through the courts. The Hitearchy of the Gardai well that is another question. It is not so long ago that a Garda Commissioner bought a house from a criminal at a knock down price.

Quote: GARDA Commissioner Pat Byrne believes information that he purchased his family home from a well-known criminal was released to newspapers to embarrass him during the force's pay row with the Government. Quote: Commissioner Byrne and his wife, Dolores, bought the house in Ashbourne, Co Meath, from Christopher Dwyer in November, 1994, for £92,000. He learned the identity of the previous owner after its purchase as the arrangements were handled by his solicitors.

Christy "Bud" Dwyer was convicted of the double manslaughter of two teenagers in Dublin in the early 1970s but served only a short prison sentence. While awaiting trial on firearms offences relating to the murder of drug dealer Anthony "Chester" Beatty in a Dublin pub last year, he fled the country while on remand. His stepson, Mark Dwyer, was killed in 1996 as a result of another drug-related feud.

It was believed that the Commissioners sister in law lived very close by and had to know the history.

Quote: Last night, a spokesperson for Justice Minister John O'Donoghue declined to comment on the issue but said the introduction of rules requiring gardaí to disclose details about their property or place of residence was not under consideration.

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26th April 2009 The Irish Times - headlines!

"Garda misled road haulage licencing authority over the application by a convicted drugs dealer!"

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Opposition today pressed the Minister for Justice over the revelation a drug dealer secured an international road hauliers' licence as the Dáil resumed following its Easter break.

The Garda Ombudsman is investigating Garda links to a drug dealer after it emerged he secured an official international road haulier’s licence. Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey has said he is reviewing the decision to award a licence to Kieran Boylan, a convicted dealer who had drugs charges against him dropped last year.

Boolean, an alleged Garda informer, had been at the centre of a serious drugs case up until July last year when charges were dropped, suddenly and without explanation. They related to the seizure of heroin and cocaine worth €1.7 million at a truckers’ yard in Ardee, Co Louth, by the Garda National Drugs Unit in October 2005.

The Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission is conducting a public interest investigation into Boolean and his links to gardaí.

Addressing the Dáil, the Minister for Justice, Dermot Ahern, said he had received an interim report but was "somewhat constrained" on what he could say on the matter in light of the Ombudsman Commission's investigation.

Pat Rabbitte, Labour spokesman on justice, noting the matter happened on July 31st last year, said: "How long does the Minister think he needs in order to come in here and answer plain facts about the case. Can I ask him to stop sheltering behind the Ombudsman Commission; if he isn't sheltering behind the skirts of the Ombudsman Commission, he is sheltering behind the Minister for Transport."

"The plain facts of this are this person was found red-handed in possession of 1.7 million pounds worth of drugs, and the charge was dropped. A nolle prosequi was entered on the last day of the court term without notice to the court. How can you explain that Minister?" Mr Rabbitte said.

The Labour TD questioned how a convicted drugs dealer could get an international licence "to import death" into the country. "People are in disbelief out there that somebody with three convictions . . . then caught red-handed in possession of a huge consignment of drugs has the charges dropped, and now somebody is covering up for him."

Mr Ahern denied there was any delay on his part and said a final Garda report would feed into the Ombudsman's report. The Minister called on Mr Rabbitte to leave any allegations of complicity aside in light of the Ombudsman's investigation.

The Minister added: "There would be disbelief if this House or any politician were to interfere into the independent process that was set up by the House to investigate complaints against gardaí . . . the Ombudsman are investigating this . . .it would be very wrong of me, you or anyone to interfere with that, and I will not do it."

During leaders' question time, Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny asked the Taoiseach why no reference was made to previous convictions when the application for the haulier's licence was made to the Department of Transport, as, Mr Kenny said, this information was on a Garda file.

The Taoiseach, Brian Cowen said there was a need to find out how the licence came to be issued. Mr Cowen said this need to happen quickly and that any gaps had to be identified and closed, with legislation if necessary.

Former Garda Jack Doyle, who was himself involved in the covert drugs operations, gave witness on the Prime Time program to the incompetence of the Garda and called into question their very credibility in the whole matter. When Garda Doyle expressed concerns and reservations as to the way the top Garda were handling the import of the huge amounts of drugs, he was relieved of his duties by his "superiors", who accused him of being mentally unstable and unfit to do his duties. He was drummed out of the force; ever since he has been trying to expose top Garda cover-ups in this case and he declares that he has no faith in the Garda to hold a fair and open inquiry into the whole matter.

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New book about the fitting up of the McBrearty family by the Garda for a murder and crimes they did not commit!

Frank Shortt

fitted up by Garda - because he refused to let drug pushers into his nightclub. Garda have tried to give the impression that they are combating drug pushers in clubs, nightclubs, discos and hotels but this was a PR exercise. How many other nightclubs have the Garda raided before and since Frank Shortt was arrested and sent to jail? In truth the Garda do not and have not raided any other nightclubs in the Republic of Ireland!

The Garda do not hinder drug pushers in clubs or on the streets of Irish towns - they turn a blind eye to drug pushing!

The many Garda seizures of drugs are a smokescreen - Are there independent witnesses to verify that drugs seized by the Garda are actually destroyed? As far as I know, not one Irish TD has brought up this question - the witness and verification of the destruction of seized drugs by the Garda!

Police to Undergo Reform

JUSTICE Minister Michael McDowell said damning Supreme Court criticism of Garda (police) corruption in Donegal which resulted in a night club boss being “fitted up” and serving 27 months in jail for bogus drugs offences justifies his policy of introducing a major shake up of the force.

He said the treatment of Frank Shortt was so bad the government had no alternative but to pursue a program of radical reform.

McDowell’s comments followed a decision by the highest court in the land to increase a $2.52 million compensation award to a record $6.23 million.

The new sum includes an unprecedented $1.33 million punitive damages to mark the court’s abhorrence of the “outrageous conduct” by police towards Shortt. His lawyer Katherine Ward said the increase was beyond Shortt’s “wildest dreams.”

“Anyone who strongly supports the Garda Síochána as I and the vast majority of the people in this country do is entitled to feel a great sense of shock, disappointment and dismay at what happened to Frank Shortt,” McDowell said.

The minister said he was, however, “heartened” by the court’s acknowledgment that the behavior of two cops who were central to Shortt’s case “should not cast aside our respect for the dedication shown by the vast majority of members down through the years.”

Former Superintendent Kevin Lennon has since been dismissed from the force, while former detective Noel McMahon resigned.

The court, and other investigations into police corruption, heard the treatment of Shortt was part of a series of bent practices aimed at obtaining speedy promotion for Lennon.

In his judgment, the presiding Chief Justice John Murray described the scandal as “a stain of the darkest dye on the otherwise generally fine tradition of the Garda.” He criticized the “especially grave” abuse of Shortt by Lennon and McMahon.

The consequence for Shortt was “a tormenting saga of imprisonment, mental and physical deterioration, estrangement from family, loss of business, public and professional ignominy and despair.”

Mr. Justice Adrian Hardiman, who was also on the bench, said the state authorities had conceded only after “a long struggle” that Shortt was the victim of “the worst known oppression of a citizen by the state” but the Garda had yet to apologize to him.

What happened to Shortt was so outrageous as almost to defy description but the police force had yet to admit this.

Shortt, now aged 72 and a married father of five, was jailed for three years after being wrongly convicted of allowing the sale of drugs in his nightclub, the Point Inn, on Donegal’s Inishowen peninsula in 1992. He served 27 months of the sentence in Mountjoy Prison, was put on anti-depressants and lost more than 30 pounds.

When in prison he was refused periods of release for the birth of his grandchild and when his wife was ill in hospital.

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What the neighbours say
Sunday, December 21, 2003
By Barry O'Kelly
It is one of the extraordinary aspects of the Sophie Toscan du Plantier murder story, and it went almost unnoticed: the alleged sightings, statements and recollections of JulesThomas, partner of the self-admitted prime suspect, Ian Bailey.

She is Bailey's key witness.

Amid the dramatic claims about Bailey - the savage beatings, the throat-slitting threats and the infamous "I did it, I did it" alleged murder confession, a wider series of claims was being outlined by his accusers about dates, times and places.

They partly concern Thomas and what she said and did after the slaying of filmmaker SophieToscan du Plantier. The principal focus of the claims is what Bailey was doing after his west Cork neighbour was battered to death on December 23, 1996.

It has been alleged that Thomas (54) spoke of the "terrible state" of du Plantier's body; it was allegedly inferred that she had taken pictures of the scene hours before news of the murder broke, and it was further alleged that around this time she was seen driving from the direction of the du Plantier house.

What is extraordinary about these and other claims is that Jules Thomas flatly refutes them, as does her partner. She has claimed that, while under arrest, the gardai pressured her into making and signing statements about Bailey having "duped" her.

The Welsh-born artist denied that Bailey was a violent man, and suggested that reports about the brutal beatings were "completely out of proportion for a domestic". A former friend said one beating left chunks of her hair torn out, her eye purple and bloodied, her mouth swollen and bite marks on her arm.

Thomas said the media had subjected the couple to an ordeal "a million times worse" than any of the beatings.

If her partner had suffered trial by media, in their reports about his being the prime suspect, his libel action allowed the papers the latitude to outline just why. They did so last Tuesday and Wednesday, in a dramatic finale before a crowded courtroom in the makeshift Cork Circuit Court, which is unlikely to hear the like of it again.

Judge Patrick Moran warned repeatedly that his court was not a court of inquiry into the du Plantier murder. Between times, the papers reproduced the bones of the witness testimony from the unsolved garda murder file, and Bailey's lawyer invited some of these witnesses to say whether they believed he was the killer.

It was not a trial, but it frequently had the look and feel of one. Bailey (46) sitting just yards away in the public seats, listened intently last Tuesday to a procession of former friends, neighbours and casual acquaintances suggesting, implying and, in the case of one, boldly declaring that he murdered Sophie Toscan du Plantier seven years ago.

The broad sweep of their statements was already put to him. Each and every one of the witnesses, he said, had got it wrong. Bailey, tall, broad-framed, with a refined middle-England accent, was articulate, analytical and generally calm in his denunciations.

But then he had to sit and endure in the public seats, alongside the rapt public gallery, journalists, witnesses and assorted lawyers, who had an altogether different experience witnessing Cork's most sensational libel case.

Bailey must surely be questioning the wisdom of bringing this low-budget libel action - the maximum payout per paper is €38,000 - since his stated aim was to restore his good name. Much of the detailed testimony has never been aired in public before (although half the country already believed he was the killer, according to his lawyer).

The testimony on behalf of the papers, led by Paul Gallagher SC, was a potted history of the case, as gleaned from the garda investigation file. The file has been given to the Director of Public Prosecutions, who declared two weeks ago that there was insufficient evidence to prosecute anybody for the murder of du Plantier.

The glamorous French woman was found battered to death on a boreen near her holiday home in Schull two days before Christmas in 1996. Ian Bailey reported on the murder.

This timelime of his alleged movements, comments, threats and confessions concerning the murder - all of which are vehemently denied by Ian Bailey - covers the crucial 24 hours after the murder: The events were related in court by the witnesses from the garda file.

* Monday December 23, 3.15am, the day of the murder, in the early hours: a man with a long coat was observed by a local shopkeeper staggering along a road, Kealfadda Bridge, near the scene of the murder.

The witness, Marie Farrell, said last week that it was not until several weeks later that she discovered that the man was Ian Bailey. He said he was at home writing on the morning du Plantier was killed. Jules Thomas said he got up to write poetry, but has no idea at what time.

Farrell testified that Bailey launched a campaign of harassment against her after she reported the sighting of him at Kealfadda Bridge to the gardai. Farrell said Bailey told her: "I did not kill Sophie, but I know you saw me at the bridge. There are things we have to discuss. I'm being set up by detectives."

He later made cutthroat gestures to her in the street, the court heard. Her solicitor and the gardai had tried to get him to stop, she said. Bailey said it was she who asked him to meet her to discuss her statement.

"She rang me and asked me to go her shop in Schull. I spoke with her. I had a tape recorder with me," he said.

Jules Thomas denied that she had ever contacted Farrell or that she had told the shopkeeper: "We must do everything in our power to protect Ian."

Thomas declined to speculate on the reported sighting of Bailey at Kealfadda Bridge. However, she was convinced that Bailey was writing in her kitchen that morning. She denied that she had told gardai that her partner had a "raw, fresh and big bloody cut" on his forehead that morning.

Asked about differences in her statements to gardaí and her account in court, she said: "They kept putting words in my mouth."

Farrell and Bailey refuse to talk to garda inquiry

By Eddie Cassidy, West Cork
MARIE FARRELL, the woman who controversially withdrew her allegations against journalist Ian Bailey, has put her family home on the market as she and Bailey refused to talk to a new garda investigation into the death of Sophie Toscan du Plantier.Both Ms Farrell and Mr Bailey, the murder suspect implicated by her witness statements to detectives nine years ago, both declined to speak to a top-level inquiry team, set up by Garda Commissioner Noel Conroy, without their legal representatives being present.

Mother of five Ms Farrell, who has not publicly spoken about her allegations, has claimed, through her solicitor Donal Daly, that she felt under pressure when she made false witness statements to gardaí.

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* December 23, 10.30am: Jules Thomas is claimed to have visited the market in the nearby village of Goleen. Vegetable seller James Camier said he met Thomas there. He claims to have a real recollection of her telling him Bailey would not be coming to the market, she having just dropped him off at the local Dreenan Crossroads.

"She said, `There's been a murder and he's going west to see it. It's very sad, but this is Ian's job.' To the best of my knowledge she said a French woman."

Jules Thomas said the conversation never happened that day. It might have happened the following day. Camier didn't come forward to make a statement to gardai until 18

* December 23, 11am: Sophie Toscan's du Plantier's body was discovered at 10.30am, but news of the murder did not emerge officially or locally for another three hours.

Jules Thomas is claimed to have been seen driving "from the direction of the du Plantier house" by a local landscape gardener, Billy Fuller. "I saw a white Fiesta, it was Jules' car and Jules was driving," said Fuller, a former acquaintance of Bailey and Thomas.

Bailey's lawyer said: "Jules Thomas will say she was not driving in that area at that time of the morning."

Fuller said he remembered that it was 11am and she was driving down the hill in the direction of Kealfadda Bridge. He was curious to know what she was doing, as she then took two turns and was driving in the direction of a cul de sac. She put her hand out "to stop something at the back of the seat" as if to stop something falling over on her, he said.

Fuller later visited the cul de sac area.

"You were doing your own bit of detective work, you went down looking," said the lawyer. Bailey has said that Fuller's statements are total fiction.

* December 23, 11am to 12.30pm: Local woman Caroline Leftwick said Bailey phoned her around this time. "He said he would be unable to call because there was a murder in the locality and `I have got the story'," she said.

The call took place at least two hours before he should have heard about the discovery of the murdered woman's body.

Bailey recalled the phone call, but denied making any reference to a murder. Leftwick is adamant.

"That's how I heard about the murder. This murder was a major event for everybody."

Leftwick said she was later told by Jules Thomas at a party that the murdered woman's body had been "a terrible sight".Thomas emphatically denied ever saying this.

1.30pm-2pm: Eddie Cassidy of the Irish Examiner recalled a phone conversation with Bailey about the discovery of a woman's body in the area.

Cassidy said that at no stage did he suggest it was a murder. Bailey insisted that he had. This was how he learned about the killing, he said.

* December 23, 1.50pm: The photo editor of the Irish Independent, Padraic Byrne, said he got a phone call from Bailey around this time.

"A phone call was put through to me. He [Bailey] said a body of a woman had been found in Schull. He said he wanted to sell me photographs of the scene," said Byrne. "He said it was a French national. He said it was a pretty lady."

& December 23, 2.20pm: Cork photo agency owner Michael Mac- Sweeney, having been told by the Indo that Bailey might have pictures, said Bailey phoned him. MacSweeney claimed: "He was very, very vague. He was meandering. I was given to believe he had taken the pictures and he was on top of the situation. Towards the end he inferred that it was his girlfriend who had taken the pictures. He said the pictures had been done that morning between 10 and 11."

MacSweeney said he later visited Bailey's house, following the latter's release from garda custody eight weeks later. He said Bailey, who had then become the prime suspect, was posing for pictures, and he then realised it was the photographer he had spoken to on the day of the murder.

"He said, `Oh you rang me on the first day.' I said: `No you rang me, you told me'."

* December 23, between 11am and noon: Bailey, it was alleged, told another person over the phone that there was a murder in the area. This was a friend of Bailey's, west Cork writer Paul O'Colman, who said that he could not be sure about thetimethe conversation took place.

"He was very excited. He told me there was a murder. I took it that it was quite a break for him as a journalist," he testified.

Bailey's lawyer said the phone call must have taken place at a later time. O'Colman said his estimate on the time was based on the facts that the call had woken him up and that he was not in the habit of sleeping very late.

He said that Bailey later told a woman at a party, in a comment he took to be a joke, that he had murdered du Plantier "to boost my career".

* December 23, 2.20pm: Ian Bailey and Jules Thomas were allegedly seen driving up the laneway of the du Plantier house by the woman who found the body, Shirley Foster.

Foster, one of three people living on the laneway, including the late du Plantier, said Bailey seemed to be in a hurry. "I had to flag them," she said. "I wound down the window."

She recalled telling Bailey that "you cannot go down there" because the gardai had it cordoned off. "He said, `I know about that, I am on an assignment'," Foster said. She rejected a suggestion by Bailey's lawyerthat they had metata crossroads and that Bailey did not know where the garda activity was taking place.

* December 23-25: at times during this period Bailey began working on the du Plantier murder story,the catalyst to relaunch his career, as his lawyer suggested. It was the biggest story of his life.

* A second neighbour Brian Jackson also claimed to have seen a fire in the garden. He distinctly heard Bailey calling his dog, Saffie.

"I have absolutely no doubt it was Ian Bailey," he said. Bailey said: "I didn't have a fire and Jules didn't have a fire. I have on St Stephen's Day no knowledge of a fire."

* Malachi Reed, then aged 14, testified that during a lift home from Schull in late January 1997 the following happened:

I got a very cold shiver, nervousness. I kept my mouth shut for two miles. I didn't know what to do. I was grateful to get out of the car."

"I went up there with a rock and bashed her brains in". He was merely repeating what they were saying.

"I said it was being said that I did." Irene Amanda Reed said she was told the story the next day by her son. She said they were terrified and they put deadbolts on the doors of their home.

She said: "A person is innocent until proven guilty, but why would he say such a thing unless he was implicated in some way?"

* Local man Billy Fuller said Bailey told him in February 1997, while speaking in the second person:

"Yes, you did it. You saw her in Spar and she turned you on, walking up the aisle with her tight arse. You went to see what you could get and she was not interested. You chased her. It stirred something in the back of your head. It went a lot further than you intended."

"What I said was `It was being said, I did it, I did it, I did it'. I understand they thought I was saying I did it. I was drunk . . . I was emotional. Christmas time brings it all back."

* Peter Bielecki, a former friend from Skibereen, suggested that Bailey told him he tried to strangle his former wife, Sarah Limbrick. Bie- lecki's former partner said Bailey repeated the story to her as well.

In the aftermath of the murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier in County Cork nearly nine years ago, gardaí failed to secure the extended local environment. That failure allowed dozens of people to freely leave Irish territory without cross-check or monitoring. While investigators could have focused on the possibility that someone from France was stalking Sophie during her last days in Schull, they instead patched together a case against Ian Bailey, an English journalist with a colourful local history. The long investigation did not meet the standards expected of a capital case and consequently the Department of Public Prosecution did not file against Ian Bailey.

Comments

Sorry to have to interject some cogency into your ramblings but the fact is that the Gardai focused on Ian Bailey because the circumstantial evidence at the time pointed towards him as a murder suspect. Investigating suspects is part of their job.I dont understand your comment regarding securing the local area and allowing 'people'to leave Ireland-what people? The police dont close national borders when crimes are commited.Would you have them do so? .Perhaps the police should have interviewed every french person in West Cork on the basis of-what exactly? Ian himself was peddling the French Mafia Hitman fantasy/ red herring on the basis of-again, no evidence whatsoever.He also had no qualms in claiming Sophie Plantier was having affairs and that her poor husband had dubious connections with the Southern French Mafia-unsubstantiated rubbish. The Police are not perfect and the forensic team in this case were woefully inadequate. That is a tragedy for all concerned but it doesnt mean the gardai were evil or corrupt or all the recent rubbish recently peddled by Ian Baileys legal team recently. Lets remember who is the victim in this case before we feel all gooey about Ian Baileys 'reputation' and good name(?!Ultimately he was not charged and is a free man,and locals have given him the benefit of the doubt. Some people feel that is more than he deserves.

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(A Garda with a sense of morality, is being fitted up because he leaked vital information on the Dean Lyons case!

If he had not done so, the Lyons Case would have been put on the "long finger", as have other cases like the Dublin paedophile network and Malcom McArthur case!)

The "long finger" tactic is well used in Ireland by both the Garda and the Irish Fianna Fail government when they need to cover up cases, which would eventually expose the crimes of the e'lites in Ireland!

A garda sergeant charged with unlawfully disclosing the contents of a report into the wrongful charging of Dean Lyons has been sent forward for trial to the Circuit Criminal Court.

Detective Sergeant Robert McNulty, of Rathfarnham in Dublin, was charged last month in connection with the leaking of a report compiled after the an inquiry into why the homeless drug addict was wrongfully charged with a double murder in Grangegorman which he did not commit.

The charges relate to a story which appeared in the Evening Herald in August 2006, a month before the report was due to be published.

The book of evidence has been served in the case and the detective has been remanded on continuing bail.

SHEILA Lyons felt sick when she was told last August that doubts expressed by certain gardai over her son Dean's confession to the murder of two women in Grangegorman in 1997 had not been acted upon. Her response was unequivocal: some gardai investigating her son's alleged involvement in the brutal murders had brushed the truth under the carpet.

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10) A spokesperson for the GRA made a claim on RTE, at the time of the dispute about the proposed Garda Reserve force between rank and file Garda and the top Garda, - the GRA spokesman claimed that top Garda were involved in Organised Crime!

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12) The killing of Brian Rossiter whilst being held in Garda custody in Clonmel Garda Station!

Two British medical experts, at the statutory inquiry disagreed with Dr. Cassidy. They concluded the 14 year old received his fatal injury either just before or during his time Garda custody, that leaves Hannigan in the clear and it leaves some rogue Gardai and Dr. Cassidy in the loop.

RTÉ News: Gardaí to probe arrest of Rossiter's father

Brian Rossiter, a 14 year old Clonmel boy, was found in a coma after a night in Garda custody. He died three days later, never having recovered consciousness. At present an inquiry is underway into the circumstances of his detention and death.

Meanwhile there is evidence of Garda harassment of the father of Brian Rossiter, Pat Rossiter, and of a central witness in the case, Tony Buck, who claims to have witnessed a named Garda strike a heavy blow to the temple of Brian Rossiter as he was being brought to a cell in the Garda station some 12 hours before he was discovered in a coma.

Tony Buck's house has been raided on several occasions and, according to him and his wife, their home was ransacked by Gardaí. On one occasion the Gardaí claimed they were searching for a firearm. One of Tony Buck's sons is serving a term of imprisonment for the murder of a Clonmel man several years ago.

Pat Rossiter, has recently instituted a legal action against Gardaí in Clonmel for false imprisonment and malicious prosecution, following his acquittal on public order charges in early May.

The judge in that case, Judge Terence Finn, was critical of the Gardaí involved in Pat Rossiter's arrest. He advised the Gardaí to "go back to the books". He said he had a long memory and if further deficiencies in Garda cases arose at Clonmel District Court he would remember this case.

Pat Rossiter had been charged with being drunk and a danger to himself and others, and with using threatening, abusive or insulting behaviour in a public place following an incident in May 2005.

One of the Gardaí involved in prosecuting Pat Rossiter was the garda in charge of the station in Clonmel on the night Brian Rossiter was brought to the station and later lapsed into a coma. He claimed in evidence he did not know who Pat Rossiter was, nor did he connect him to Brian Rossiter.

In the course of the case the judge expressed scepticism about notes gardaí allegedly made at the time concerning the incident involving Pat Rossiter. He also commented on the "marked similarity" in the evidence given by two gardaí in the case.

Pat Rossitor, father of murdered Brian Rossitor, says he will now sue the Garda and the "Justice Dept" for the murder of his 14 yearold son whilst held unlawfully in Garda custody in Clonmel!

Report finds Rossiter unlawfully detained

An inquiry into the death of 14-year-old Clonmel schoolboy Brian Rossiter while in Garda custody has found no evidence that he was assaulted but found he was unlawfully detained by gardai. The report of the inquiry by senior counsel Hugh Hartnett into the boy's death was published by Minister for Justice Brian Lenihan today. It found there was a failure to fully investigate all the circumstances surrounding his death. These findings must now be studied carefully to see what lessons need to be learned, and how best to deal with any similar circumstances in the future Minister for Justice Brian Lenihan Brian Rossiter died after he was found unconscious in a cell at Clonmel Garda station on the morning of September 11th, 2002, following his arrest by gardaí at about 9.30pm on the previous night on suspicion of having committed a public order offence. The inquiry found that, while the arrest of Brian Rossiter was lawful, his detention was unlawful, notwithstanding the fact that his father consented to it. It also found there was a failure to observe properly certain procedural requirements of regulations governing custody in Garda stations, in particular a failure to record accurately the time at which Brian Rossiter was given information relating to his rights while in custody. Mr Hartnett’s inquiry was not satisfied, however, that the teenager was assaulted in the course or while he was in custody. It also found no evidence that there was an attempt made to mislead medical personnel wrongfully with incorrect information. The inquiry sat in private for 77 days and heard evidence from 99 witnesses between December 2005 and September 2006. The report found Brian Rossiter was under the influence of an intoxicant at the time of his arrest. “It would appear reasonable to believe that a fourteen-year-old who is intoxicated might prove to be a danger to himself. In these circumstances, and having considered all the evidence presented, the inquiry is satisfied that the arrest was not unlawful.” On the allegations that Mr Rossiter was assaulted, Mr Hartnett found the evidence of one male witness who claimed he saw Brian Rossiter being assaulted upon his arrest to be “entirely false”.

A female witness who also alleged that she saw Brian Rossiter being assaulted by a garda while being taken to the Garda station gave evidence that “was unclear and, at times, contradictory”.

The inquiry “did not find [her] to be a persuasive or credible witness and does not accept her evidence in relation to the alleged maltreatment of Brian Rossiter”.

A man named as ‘Mr C’ who claimed he saw Brian Rossiter being assaulted by members of the Garda Síochána in Clonmel Garda station was “thoroughly unreliable and lacking in credibility”. There were “glaring inconsistencies” in various versions of events given by Mr C since 2002, the report states. Mr C was in custody that night in the Garda station having been arrested for an unrelated offence. “His lack of co-operation with this inquiry from the very beginning was in marked contrast to his willingness to report allegations to other parties in circumstances where he would not be subjected to examination," the report said.

Mr Lenihan said today the publication of the full report was not possible for legal reasons. “I hope that the comprehensive summary which I am publishing today, containing extensive extracts from the report, will facilitate a clear understanding of the events leading up to Brian's tragic death. “While I am constrained in what I can say due to ongoing litigation, and while I am mindful of the inquest currently under way, clearly these findings must now be studied carefully to see what lessons need to be learned, and how best to deal with any similar circumstances in the future,” he said. A full copy of the report has been made available to the Rossiter family in the context of ongoing civil proceedings. Copies of the full report have also been given to the Director of Public Prosecutions, the Cork City Coroner, and the Garda Commissioner. Garda Commissioner Fachtna Murphy said he accepted the findings of the report. “However, in responding he is mindful of the constraints placed on him by the forthcoming inquest and by the ongoing related civil proceedings in the High Court. “The Garda Commissioner tasked an Assistant Commissioner to examine the full report and to assess in accordance with legal advice whether any disciplinary or criminal issues arise. "In that context the Assistant Commissioner is consulting with the relevant law officers and the Commissioner awaits a report from him,” he said in a statement. “The Commissioner again extends his sympathies to the Rossiter family on the tragic death of Brian and acknowledges the distress experienced by them at their loss.”

The Garda Representative Association said it was studying the full version of the document. GRA president John Egan said members "fully co-operated with the investigation and subsequent inquiry". "We welcome the findings by Mr Hartnett that there was no assault by a member of An Garda Síochána, either during the arrest or in whilst in Garda custody.”

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