A garda who acted as liaison officer with the family of murdered Dún Laoghaire teenager Raonaid Murray has failed in his attempt to stop disciplinary proceedings alleging discreditable and insensitive conduct by him, including allegedly urinating on a tree at the scene of the killing.
It was also alleged that he drove the dead girl's sister and her friends home at a time when he had consumed a number of pints of beer.
Garda Ian Gillen (44) was subjected to internal disciplinary proceedings after the Murray family's complaint about his behaviour was deemed inadmissible by the Garda Complaints Board in May 2004 because the family had not made a complaint to the board within six months of the date of the alleged breaches of discipline.
Garda Gillen was appointed liaison officer with the Murray family after their daughter, Raonaid, was murdered on September 4th, 1999. Ms Murray (17) died after receiving stab wounds to her side, chest and shoulder in an attack near her home at Silchester Park, Glenageary.
More than 8,000 people have been interviewed in the Garda investigation and almost 3,000 statements taken. There were 12 arrests but no one was charged.
The alleged breaches of discipline by Garda Gillen were "of discreditable conduct where he had been appointed a liaison officer to the Murray family following the murder of their daughter, Raonaid, where he conducted himself in a manner which he ought to have known would be reasonably likely to discredit the Garda Síochána on October 15th/16th 1999", just over a month after the murder.
It is alleged that Garda Gillen failed to abide by an agreement with the Murray family to take Raonaid's sister, Sarah, home from Baker's Corner pub after the first half of an international rugby match which was being shown on TV in the pub. It is also alleged that he breached Garda discipline by driving Sarah, Audrey Territ and Jane Bridgeman from Baker's Corner pub to the Club Bar in Dalkey, having already consumed a number of pints of beer. It is further alleged that Garda Gillen, in the presence of Jane Bridgeman, urinated on a tree at the scene where the crime allegedly took place.
Garda Gillen denied that he was guilty of any of the alleged breaches of discipline and he went to the High Court in February 2005 to stop the disciplinary proceedings. He claimed that the delay in bringing the proceedings had adversely affected his conditions of employment and promotion.
In his reserved judgment, Mr Justice Roderick Murphy refused to halt the disciplinary proceedings against Garda Gillen.