Varadkar: Garda evidence at Jobstown trial needs to be ‘examined’

Taoiseach Leo Vardkar has said Garda Headquarters should examine evidence given by members of the force at the recent Jobstown trial.

Amid repeated allegations the evidence of some Garda witnesses in the case was not accurate, Mr Varadkar has suggested Garda Commissioner Noirin O'Sullivan examine the matter.

He told RTE’s Prime Time, in an interview that is set for broadcast on Thursday night, he would be worried if Garda witnesses ever misled a court.

His remarks and his suggestion a Garda “examination” be conducted have come as a surprise to many senior Garda officers.

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Solidarity TD Paul Murphy was last week acquitted, along with five other men, of the false imprisonment of the then tánaiste Joan Burton and her assistant Karen O'Connell during an anti-water chargeprotest in November 2014 at Jobstown in west Dublin.

Mr Murphy has alleged the case against him and his co-accused was politically motivated and based on evidence from Garda members that was not truthful.

He said some of the Garda evidence to the court had conflicted with the video evidence and that this could not be attributed to poor memory.

The Taoiseach has said he would be concerned if that suggestion were true.

“People need to trust what the gardai say on the stand,” he told Prime Time.

“And I can understand that, perhaps in a scenario whereby lots of things are happening quickly and people are caught up in the heat of the moment; they may have a recollection that isn’t exactly as things happened.

“But I would be very concerned if it’s the case that we would ever have gardai on a stand in the courts giving evidence that is not in line with the facts; that is not in line with, for example, the video evidence.

“And I think there is something there than needs to be looked at, both by the Garda commissioner and by senior Garda management because we need to be able to trust that when the gardai stand up in court and they say something happened, that it did happen.”

“And it shouldn’t conflict with the video evidence. And if it does, then that is a problem.”

In a statement on Thursday night, the Garda said the review of “the policing response and the subsequent investigation into the incident” at Jobstown began on Friday.

Gardaí said that the review will be from a “lessons-learnt perspective” and will examine “Key learning points; Identification of organisational practices/policies which require improvement; Training; Any other issues of note.”

Speaking under Dáil privilege on Tuesday on his first day back in the Dáil since the trial ended last week, Mr Murphy said there was “clear evidence of conspiracy to stitch up protesters for false imprisonment”.

He added it was a conspiracy that “three gardaí under oath up to the rank of Superintendent saying that I said ‘will we keep her here all night when I said no such thing’.”

Mr Murphy continued: “You can talk about frailty of human memory for one or maybe even for two but for three guards to say a thing that simply did not happen.”

Mr Murphy has demanded a public inquiry into the Garda investigation and trial process, a move Mr Varadkar continues to rule out.