An internal Garda inquiry has been set up into the evidence of two of its members in the Murphy case. However, the history of other such inquiries is not encouraging, writes Carol Coulter
Mr Justice Barr's language was strong when he described the evidence of two members of the Garda Síochána investigating Colm Murphy's involvement in the Omagh bombing. Det Garda Liam Donnelly and Det Garda John Fahy had been shown to have fabricated one page of interview notes, only to remove this page and replace it with another. They had discovered the information they inserted, concerning Murphy's family, was incorrect, and so Murphy could not have made the statement.
Their conduct was "outrageous", said the judge. They had been involved in "persistent lying on oath", they were "discredited witnesses".
The Garda Commissioner, Mr Pat Byrne, has set up an inquiry into their activities, headed by Det Supt Cormac Gordon. He has asked for the result to be sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions.
However, the history of such inquiries is not encouraging. There was the Carty inquiry into the McBrearty affair, where members of the family of a Donegal publican had 160 charges laid against them for licensing offences, all later withdrawn. That report has been with the DPP for almost two years, but the truth seems no closer.
Mr Justice Barr prompted another inquiry into Garda behaviour, again in the Special Criminal Court. This arose from the trial of Paul Ward for the murder of Venonica Guerin.
During that investigation Paul Ward allegedly admitted to being an accessory to the murder. However, the Special Criminal Court found it extraordinary that two sets of Garda interrogators who interviewed Ward the next morning were unaware of the admission.
The judgment said: "This indicated either incredible disorganisation in the murder investigation, despite the fact there was a continuously manned incident room at Lucan Garda station, or there was no memorandum of the Lynagh/ Dillon interview at the time and it came into existence later."
The court also expressed concern about marks on Ward's neck and the fact that his girlfriend and elderly mother had been brought to the station to put pressure on him to confess - his alleged confession was ruled as inadmissible. However, he was convicted on the evidence of accomplice Charles Bowden, a protected witness.
There was an internal Garda inquiry into how Ward came to make the confession. Like the McBrearty inquiry, this was carried out by Assistant Commissioner Kevin Carty, but the results have never been made public, nor has there been an announcement that they have gone to the Director of Public Prosecutions.
Dubious confessions and fabricated evidence have not only arisen over subversive and organised crime. There have also been cases where confused and vulnerable people on the margins of society have found themselves charged with very serious crimes.
DEAN Lyons was a homeless drug addict with a history of educational difficulties and a fear of authority.
In August 1997 he was charged with the murder of two women, patients of Grangegorman psychiatric hospital, who were killed and horribly mutilated in the home they shared in the hospital grounds in March that year.
When he was interviewed Dean Lyons had been without heroin since the previous day, and a transcript of the interview show a confused and disoriented man. However, according to the Garda he confessed to the murders in great detail, in clear, generally grammatically correct English.
A week after he purportedly confessed, another man, English-born Mark Nash, killed a young couple in their home in Roscommon. When interviewed later in Galway Garda station he also admitted the Grangegorman murders, including details never published at the time the crime was reported. He was never charged with these murders.
Dean Lyons remained in custody, charged with the murders, until he was released in April 1998. The Chief State Solicitor later dropped the charges against him without giving a reason. In September 2000, Dean Lyons died in Manchester. An internal Garda inquiry was also set up into this affair. Again, its findings have not been released.
There are other cases where the discrediting of Garda evidence led to the acquittal of the accused or the charges being dropped.
In the trial of Colm Murphy, counsel for the defence Mr Michael O'Higgins SC pointed to the trial last July of Paul O'Donoghue, accused of murdering his wife. He had allegedly told investigating gardaí "I want to be charged . . . I want to go to jail". During the trial he denied making these statements and was acquitted by the jury.
One of the gardaí who interviewed him was Det Garda James Hanley, who was also one of those who interviewed Murphy. Det Garda Hanley had also been involved in the Ward investigation. In the Murphy trial, Mr O'Higgins argued this was relevant in assessing the detective's evidence, but this was rejected by the court. It is now one of the grounds for the appeal.
Other such cases include that of Fred Flannery, charged with the murder of Denis O'Driscoll in Cork in 1994, where young men disappeared from a house frequented by the homeless. When his case came to trial in June 1997 it was found that relevant evidence had been withheld, not only from the defence, but from the prosecution. The trial collapsed, and Mr Justice Barr put a stay on him being prosecuted for this crime. It is not known if an internal Garda inquiry ensued.
It has been repeatedly stated that the video-recording of Garda interviews would prevent many of the abuses that appear to have occurred, and would equally prevent malicious allegations against gardaí. This was first mooted in the 1984 Criminal Justice Act, but the necessary regulations were only passed in 1997. Even then, recording of interviews was carried out on a pilot basis in only four stations. This has increased since then, but it is still not the practice for all investigations into serious crimes to take place in stations which have this facility.
Meanwhile, the installation of the system has run into difficulties, with the contract being examined by the Ombudsman and the Comptroller and Auditor General.
However, this will not settle controversy when things do go wrong. The introduction of a Police Ombudsman in Northern Ireland has brought new accountability and openness into the conduct of the new police service. It may be time to match that in this jurisdiction.