A GARDA who was alleged to have leaked the Garda documents to the media that forced the resignation of Trevor Sargent TD as minister for state will not be prosecuted.
Garda sources have confirmed that the Director of Public Prosecutions has decided not to press charges against the young female garda at the centre of the case.
It is unclear why the DPP made the decision not to prosecute and the office does not explain its reasons.
It is understood that the garda in question still faces an internal Garda inquiry into the matter.
Mr Sargent said yesterday that it wouldn’t be appropriate for him to comment on a decision of the DPP.
“There is still an internal investigation and I do not want to prejudice anything that is ongoing.”
As part of the investigation, the female garda was arrested in March and questioned at Lucan Garda station. She was released without charge on that occasion.
Under the Garda Síochána Act, an officer can face a €50,000 fine or up to five years in jail for disclosing confidential information.
Mr Sargent stepped down in February after it emerged that he had written to the Garda about a constituent in north county Dublin who was facing criminal proceedings.
In the letter he urged the investigating garda to drop criminal charges against a constituent Dominic McGowan.
Mr Sargent wrote a number of letters to the Garda after Mr McGowan was attacked near his home at the Cardy Rock estate in Balbriggan in September 2007.
In one of the letters, Mr Sargent said it would be “wholly inappropriate” to prosecute Mr McGowan. He said he believed Mr McGowan had only become involved in a public order incident after he tried to discourage other residents from damaging public property.
Mr McGowan was subsequently convicted and fined for a public order offence.
When the case came to court, Mr Sargent wrote again to the Garda in February of this year asking that the superintendent “keep an eye on the case”, as he was concerned for the safety of his constituent.
When the correspondence came to light in the Evening Herald, Mr Sargent tendered his resignation as minister of state for food and horticulture within hours, accepting that he had made an “error of judgment”.
While Opposition parties initially blamed Fianna Fáil for leaking the correspondence, speculation soon focused on gardaí after the correspondence was published in the newspaper.
Handwritten notations on copies of some of the letters indicate that they were faxed by gardaí in Balbriggan to Harcourt Square.
A note on the top of Mr Sargent’s leaked letter to Supt Joe Kelly of Balbriggan Garda station reads “fax to C and C”, which is understood to be the Garda’s command and control centre at Harcourt Square.
Another letter has the note “ASF”, the Garda initials used for an assault.