A serving Garda member has been arrested for questioning as part of an investigation into the death of a man during an interaction with gardaí in Dublin city centre two weeks ago.
Dubliner Paul Butler (51) died after the incident outside the Holiday Inn on O’Connell Street in the early hours of Friday, August 15th. It is suspected he hit his head on the ground. He died in hospital four days later as a result of those injuries.
Mr Butler had been approached by gardaí on the street at the time of the incident, and the circumstances of his suffering a head injury have been under investigation by Fiosrú, the Republic’s police ombudsman.
That inquiry, which is a criminal investigation, has now resulted in the arrest of a serving Garda member.
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It is understood he was arrested for questioning on Tuesday in relation to the fatal incident. The garda was questioned for several hours and has since been released without charge pending further investigation.
When contacted, Fiosrú declined to offer any substantive comment on the latest development in the inquiry.
“Fiosrú, the Office of the Police Ombudsman, is independently investigating an incident referred by An Garda Síochána on Friday, August 15th,” it said.
“The investigation is ongoing and Fiosrú will not be making any comment at this time.”
The Garda member arrested for questioning on Tuesday had already been suspended from duty depending the outcome of the Fiosrú inquiry into Mr Butler’s death.
While Mr Butler was still critically injured in hospital, the incident was referred by Garda Headquarters to Fiosrú, which investigates complaints made against gardaí. Fiosrú is obliged by law to investigate any incident where a person is seriously injured or dies at or around the time they had interactions with gardaí.
The criminal investigation into Mr Butler’s death is expected to take some time. At its conclusion, a file will be prepared for the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), as is the case when the Garda carries out criminal investigations. It will be up to the DPP to determine if there is a criminal case.
It is understood the garda has denied any wrongdoing.
The garda was in a patrol car with a sergeant on O’Connell Street just after 4am when they spotted Mr Butler, who they suspected may have been in an intoxicated state.
The gardaí told investigators they approached the man after they saw him at the traffic island in the street. During this interaction, the man fell to the ground.
It is not known if the garda had physical contact with Mr Butler, who was from Phibsborough, Dublin, and formerly of Grace Park Road, Dublin. He was taken to hospital, and an on-call investigator from Fiosrú attended the scene.
The incident was not captured on the Garda car’s dashcam but investigators were able to obtain CCTV footage from other cameras on the street, sources said.
