A former garda found to have breached disciplinary rules by failing to submit to a drug search at a concert when he was off-duty has challenged the decision to dismiss him from the force.
Patrick Walsh, from Nenagh, Co Tipperary, who spent 20 years in An Garda Síochána, has brought High Court judicial review proceedings against the Garda Commissioner and an internal Garda appeal board that affirmed a previous decision of a Garda board of inquiry that he had engaged in discreditable conduct.
Mr Walsh was found guilty of breaching Garda discipline following an incident at Electric Picnic festival at Stradbally, Co Laois, in early September 2007.
It was claimed he refused to submit to a search. It was further claimed a struggle ensued between Mr Walsh and a security man, a bag containing drugs was thrown, landed in a nearby bin and was retrieved.
Mr Walsh denied the bag belonged to him. When uniformed gardaí intervened, he was brought to another location where he refused to undergo a search.
Mr Walsh was subsequently charged with having 6.4g of amphetamine but was acquitted by Judge Gerard Haughton in the District Court in November 2008.
Leave to bring the challenge was granted on an ex-parte basis (one side only represented) by Mr Justice John Hedigan, who returned the matter to December.