Discipline finding on garda quashed

A Co Kildare garda yesterday obtained a High Court order quashing a decision by the Garda Complaints Board in March 1999 that…

A Co Kildare garda yesterday obtained a High Court order quashing a decision by the Garda Complaints Board in March 1999 that breaches of Garda discipline "may have been disclosed" during an investigation carried out into an incident at a funeral in January 1998.

Mr Justice Finnegan also granted Garda Patrick Dooner - a patrol car driver who stopped a man on the Rathangan Road, Kildare, on the day of the funeral of the man's father in law - an order quashing a decision by the Garda Commissioner indicating his intention to deal with a complaint made by that man against the garda.

Mr Justice Finnegan said that, in indicating to the garda the nature of the complaint against him, the Commissioner had omitted to state that the complainant had alleged Garda Dooner had "harassed members of my family".

Mr Justice Finnegan held that, had the full text of the complaint by the man been furnished to the garda, the presentations made by Garda Dooner to the Garda Complaints Board might have been different.

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He was satisfied that there had been a serious non-observance of the rules of natural justice.

In order to comply with the rules of natural justice, the text of the complaint or an accurate statement of its content ought to have been made available to the garda either by the Complaints Board before submitting material to the Commissioner or by the Commissioner before making his determination in the matter.

The Commissioner had also given the garda no opportunity to make submissions in regard to what penalty he might impose.