Category: Gardai

Secret police force

The various reports from the Morris Tribunal have established that the Irish police force is a corrupt, indisciplined and incompetent organization.

Furthermore, nothing is being done to correct this state of affairs because of what the Irish Independent calls “the debased culture of Irish politics and public service.” Secrecy, the most powerful weapon of a corrupt state, protects these policemen and allows them a free hand to continue with their corrupt practices.

For example, last Wednesday, it was reported that Garda Headquarters refused to disclose details of thirty one police officers who were found guilty of a range of offences before the courts or what specific disciplinary action would be taken against the officers. A garda spokesman said:

“The breakdown figures you seek are not routinely disseminated and as a consequence are not readily available. The amount of time required to assemble these figures is disproportionate to any perceived benefit.”

Clearly, this dismissive statement was issued in the the confident knowledge that no further accountability will be demanded.

Ex-Garda confirms parts of White's allegations

This has been a pet subject at Public Inquiry – but one that has received little media attention. The Irish Times reports:

A former garda said he was told by another officer that a room in Letterkenny Garda station was set up to secretly record conversations and visitors before several people were arrested during the investigation into the death of cattle dealer Richie Barron in 1996.

Martin Leonard said he was told afterwards that Sgt Joseph Costello had been brought down from Garda HQ in Dublin to bug rooms in the station.

“It was discussed afterwards. Tina Fowley was the one I heard on about it, that she had prepared that particular room,” Mr Leonard said.

“That’s the only one I heard on about it. That somebody had asked her to get an armchair for it, something about an armchair,” Mr Leonard added.

Mr Leonard said that Gda Fowley told him “that he [ Sgt Costello] was brought down and that the room was set up to listen to visitors.”

The former garda said he thought secret taping would be inappropriate, but it would not be wrong, because “it wasn’t a privileged conversation between a solicitor and a client.”

Mr Leonard said there was no question of gardaí bugging conversations between solicitors and clients.

This adds further weight to Sgt White’s allegations.What Leonard does not do is say that solicitor-client conversations were recorded – something that White has alleged. But looking at the tribunal transcriptions reveals some surprising details. Garda Leonard appeared to see nothing wrong with bugging conversations, or even more strange activities:

Chairman:Was it wrong to be doing that in your view?
Leonard: I don’t think so, you know
Chairman: What?
Leonard: I don’t think so.
Chairman: No?
Leonard: Not if you want to establish the truth about something, I don’t think so.
Chairman: Yes.
Leonard: I don’t believe there’s anything wrong with it fundamentally. It wasn’t a privileged conversation, you know, between a solicitor and a client. I mean, for example, would you think it’s an awful thing supposing that you had somebody in a cell, right, and you believe in your heart and soul that they committed murder, would you think it an awful thing for a guard to go in and say — as another prisoner, be brought in and threw into the cell that night, throw drink on him, on the guard let’s say and pretended he was drunk, adn then he might get some information from the person you believed committed murder, I wouldn’t see anything wrong with that at all.
Counsel (McDermott): That has led to terrible miscarriages of justice throughout the common law world.
Leonard: No, no, no, wait.

Wheelock clothes had 'extensive blood stains'

This could be big. Given the gardai’s unwillingness to allow the clothes to be forensically tested, it turns out there may be blood all over them. This would lend support to the idea that Wheelock was assaulted and subsequently died in Garda custody.

Terence Wheelock (20), Summerhill, Dublin, was found unconscious in a cell at Store Street Garda station last June after he apparently attempted to hang himself with a cord from his tracksuit bottoms.

He was taken to the Mater hospital by ambulance but never regained consciousness. He died there three and a half months later, on September 16, 2005. His family alleges that the circumstances of his death differ from the Garda version of events and that he was mistreated while in a cell.

An inquest into Mr Wheelock’s death was adjourned last month so that State Pathologist Dr Marie Cassidy and Dublin City Coroner Dr Brian Farrell could view photographs that are said to show abrasions and minor lacerations to the man’s body.

The pictures were taken by a clinical photographer at the Mater the day after his admission and were presented to the court by the Wheelock family’s legal team.

The Wheelock family’s forensic experts from Britain carried out the examination of his clothes in the last couple of weeks and the level of blood-staining is said to be of “major magnitude” to the case.
It is understood that new evidence may come before the inquest following on from the independent forensic examination. The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) directed in February that there be no prosecution in relation to Mr Wheelock’s death.

But any new evidence that comes to light during the inquest could result in the Wheelock’s legal team requesting that the coroner ask that another Garda file be sent to the DPP for consideration.

Securing Mr Wheelock’s clothing and the ligature used in his death for independent examination came after months of legal wrangling between the family’s legal team and the Garda Commissioner’s office.

Permission was denied for the clothing to be sent Britain and the family’s experts were eventually permitted to carry out the testing in the Forensic State Laboratory.
Michael Norton, a forensic scientist at Garda headquarters who examined the ligature used in Mr Wheelock’s death as well as his clothes, told the last sitting of the inquest that there were blood stains on some Mr Wheelock’s undergarments.

The inquest will be heard briefly today before it resumes in full in the New Year.

Bugging interview rooms

I touched on this subject back in April, when at the time I wondered why the Irish media seemed to be asleep at the wheel when it came to the significance of the allegations John White had made concerning garda bugging of interview rooms.

Six months later, the Sunday Independent leads with a story concerning the allegations. I’ll quote the whole lot to save you registering.

SENIOR gardai sanctioned the bugging of solicitors, a priest and relatives of prisoners held in garda stations, the Sunday Independent has learned.

Details of the systematic use of eavesdropping equipment emerged following reports that a bug was installed in Letterkenny Garda Station to listen in on conversations between members of the McBrearty family, between periods of interrogation, in December 1996.

One of the detectives involved in the McBrearty case, Det Sgt John White, has made a statement to the Morris inquiry outlining the common use of such techniques.

In his statement, he names several senior gardai, retired and serving, who he said sanctioned the illicit eavesdropping. White’s claims have been supported by other detectives who say the practice was carried out regularly in major investigations.

He said the quipment was a “Nagra” recorder, manufactured by the Swiss electronics firm, Kudelski, which specialises in security and listening equipment. White said that the buggings were most commonly used in cases where the prisoners were not serious criminals or subversives. Professional criminals and IRA members were least likely to discuss matters of interest to investigators.

He also claimed he came across bugging about 50 to 60 times during his period of service in the Murder Squad between 1980 and 1994.

He said the secret information was never discussed at major investigation conferences, where between 20 and 40 gardai might be present, but at “mini conferences” of between five and 10 officers.

The most common question at these meetings, he said, was, “Anything from the tapes?” and the answer would usually be given by a detective superintendent or detective inspector.

He had never heard the detectives raise concerns about the practice. He said there was little cognizance given to conversations with solicitors whose advice to clients – in what should under law have been private – invariably involved advice not to answer any more questions.

He said: “I cannot remember any earth-shattering revelations being made by prisoners to their solicitors.”

White, who was acquitted last July of planting a shotgun in a travellers’ site in Donegal, in 2001, but who was subsequently criticised in three reports of the Morris tribunal, said that during his time as a detective the process of bugging prisoners’ private conversation was called “boxing”.

He said: “Officers and members, including myself, believed that we were entitled to use covert recording equipment in the struggle against crimes of murder and other very serious crimes.

“It was not a case of being entitled to do so by law, but on the assumption that the equipment would not harm any innocent person and that the persons being listened to were either persons who had committed a very serious criminal act or were murderers.

“It was quite clear that this system could not have operated for so many years without the knowledge and approval of the most senior authority within An Garda Siochana. This system of covert recording was being used as a tool by detectives, in an effort to solve crime, and while it could not be regarded by any member of An Garda Siochana as being lawful, it was not regarded by those aware of its existence as being morally wrong.

“I heard many times the phrase ‘to box them’ being used by officers and members in relation to the covert recording of meetings between prisoners and other prisoners, and between prisoners and visitors. This was a reference to placing the respective parties together in a room that was bugged.”

Det Sgt White also said that while he had no documentation on the recordings, there should be in existence – “if they have not been destroyed” – written requests from divisional and district offices for the listening equipment.

He said these forms were known as A 85 and A 13.

He said that two retired detectives stated that they had reported allegations of recordings to their authorities, the Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell, and the Morris tribunal, in writing. They informed me that their superiors had not taken the matter seriously and that they believed a proper investigation was not undertaken and that the matter was being covered up by the Garda Authorities.”

Why it took six months I don’t know. But the seriousness of White’s allegations are the same now as they were six months ago. The mini-module relating to the bugging will begin at either the end of November or early in the new year. The repurcussions of it could be huge. The tribunal has listed the following people to appear in relation to the bugging mini-module:

Detective Sergeant John White

Garda John Dooley

John Fitzgerald

Joseph Shelly

John McGinley

Sergeant Joseph Costello

Denis Fitzpatrick

Detective Chief Superintendent Austin McNally

Paudge Dorrian

Garda Tina Fowley

James Sweeney

John Costello

Superintendent James Paul Sharpe

Camera phones for gardai suggested

In the just off-the-wall-enough-to-be-implemented category, the idea from McDowell is that Gardai should be able to take photos of public order/offence suspects as a matter of course. And the rationale? In case people give false name and addresses. It sounds more like a national database for the Gardai by the backdoor to me. Let’s read the meat:

Mr McDowell told TDs he envisaged “the day, now that we are in the era that most of us carry a camera in our phone, that gardaí on duty dealing with a disorder situation, where they ask someone for their name and address, would also take a photograph of them so they know who they were dealing with afterwards, and that somehow this would be digitally sendable back to some record somewhere so that it is kept.

“I don’t see that this is a huge civil liberties issue,” he said. “It does seem to me that we will soon get to the point that every squad car has a mobile computer attached to it and will be in a position to communicate back.”

Mr McDowell also said he would like to see closed circuit television monitoring installed throughout every Garda station, which would be in addition to recording interviews.

The Garda is planning to introduce a new €6 million computer and camera system for Garda traffic corps vehicles which will be able to read car registrations and which will be linked to the Garda pulse system.

It means any vehicles which are not taxed or insured or which have been reported stolen will trigger a warning notice on an in-car computer screen.

Would anyone else have a problem being photographed as a matter of course for even being suspected for such a minor offence?

McDowell says gardai signalled non-co-operation with ombudsman

Once the Garda Ombudsman is established, will the Gardai cooperate with it? It seems like they may not.

In a statement Mr McDowell described how he met both the GRA and the AGSI in Dublin in February 2004 to discuss the commission among other matters.

He said he was told “in the clearest and most unambiguous terms” that they would oppose the use of gardaí by the commission to investigate complaints.

“I pointed out to them that such a course of action would make the ombudsman commission’s work impossible because it would entail the creation of a very large staff of investigators – running perhaps to hundreds – and that such a course would not be justifiable, especially in relation to complaints of a lower degree of seriousness.”

Mr McDowell said the unions held this position despite his warning, and they were now claiming this did not amount to a threat of non-co-operation.

“I am absolutely satisfied that the policy clearly enunciated at the meeting by those members present was intended to convey to me that the associations would oppose the involvement of members of An Garda Síochána in investigations to be carried out by the commission.”

Gardai examine hundreds of phone records

Interesting to see how ‘official’ phone bugging is going..

Hundreds of private telephone records are being examined by the Garda Síochána every month, the Data Protection Commissioner said

Gardai currently are entitled to get access to the records during inquiries about any crime, regardless of its seriousness, said the commissioner, Billy Hawkes, who published his annual report yesterday.

An initial request for the records of one individual suspected of criminality can frequently provoke requests for the records of every individual listed on the suspect’s file, he added.

“Just make sure that you don’t ring the number of a major criminal by mistake, or you could find that your records are listed,” he told journalists yesterday, though he emphasised that there is no evidence that the gardaí were improperly using their powers.

The inspection of a citizen’s telephone records should not be the “first option, or a routine option” for the Garda.

Under proposed EU legislation, which is being opposed by Minister for Justice Michael McDowell, telephone records would have to be stored for between six months and two years in all EU member states, but they would be made available to police only during serious crime investigations.

What John White alleged

Here are some parts of the transcripts from Morris. Morris reacted with exasperation that Gardai may be bugging solicitors.

Chair: You have mentioned bugging and similar type activities?
White: There was Chairman, yes
Chair: Are you aware of other members who actually witnessed this type of unauthorized activity?
White: I would be aware from experience, Chairman, of particular members in Dublin. But in relation to bugging and perhaps this is of no interest to you, but it is of interest to me, it’s outside of Donegal but Sargeant Thomas Murphy and Garda James McGrath did witness bugging of an interview room and they were beside the man and the machine and they can name the man that was using it and the made statements to that effect. They cam to the Tribunal here one day and they met me at the back of the Tribunal in the corner there some time ago, maybe a year and a half ago, and they told me that they were quite willing to give evidence about all this. It was in a murder case in Cork in ’92 and they can definitely give sworn evidence that the interview room was bugged and they saw it happening and they heard it happening.
Chair: Are they prepared to come forward and confirm that to the Tribunal?
White: They are and they have made statements to their own superintendent about it. There was supposed to be an investigation but I believe it was a cover-up – – well they believe it was a cover-up and they have told me that. They have all the reports, all the documentation necessary to show that.

Ref 747:

McDermott: Just in relation to the bugging issue and the reference which you made in the broader sense to the existence of bugging in other circumstances, on other occasions and the one incident that you were able to concretize in relation to the Chairman in relation to the Cork matter?
White: Yes
McDermott: And the two men you named, and we won’t name again. I have asked for a search to be done in relation to correspondence to the Tribunal and just as a matter of record, one of the gentlemen did initially write to the Tribunal concerning a matter in Cork relating to bugging and was told by the Tribunal that it was outside the Terms of Reference of the Tribunal. Of course strictly speaking it was. Now, your allegation in relation to the bugging, the generalized bugging issue is now a much wider allegation as and of course what you are saying now is in relation to that particular incident is that as far as you are concerned, it is an example of your general allegation that this was widespread throughout the force; isn’t that right?
White: Yes. Mr. McDermott, that’s right.
McDermott: Thereby making what well may be or may have been deemed to be a matter outside the Terms of Reference relevant to your presentation to the Tribunal. That’s why you are referring to it; is that right?
White: Very strongly, Chairman, yes. I find it very difficult to get people to come forward in relation to this. That is one particular situation. I would very much appreciate if the Tribunal would hear evidence in the future.

Ref 288:

White: Chairman, at this stage it would be appropriate for the senior Garda authority to come clean in relation to bugging. It cannot be covered up. There are at least two hundred men alive at the moment, and women, probably a lot more, who know exactly what went on over the years, some of them are still serving in the job, and to try and cover it up on a nationwide scale, it can’t be done. It just can’t be done. It did happen. The equipment was bought and purchased at extensive cost to do it. It was not a universal approach, in certain cases they were done and it’s not just down to interview rooms. It’s houses, cars, apartments and phones. And it’s done illegally, totally illegally, and the senior Garda authority know this is the case. I know that I am saying it on oath. I can give you specific – in the next module.
Chair: Sargeant White, what concerns me is the suggestion, more than a suggestion, the statement that is apparently before, that solicitors consultation were being bugged.
White: Yes.
Chair: Whether listening devices are used outside of that –
White: Oh yes.
Chair: – is a matter that I haven’t got to concern myself with. But I do have to concern myself with the allegation that in these particular cases the solicitors’ consultations were bugged.
White: Yes
Chair: You’re saying that happened
White: It happened
Chair: And you saying that it happened as a matter of practice elsewhere; is that correct?
White: Yes
Chair: Solicitors’ consultations?
White: In face I personally heard, Chairman, that one priest was bugged talking to a prisoner. I can give the name of the prisoner. It’s quite some time ago.
Chair: Solicitors, is that what we are talking about?
White: Right, yes. Yes, of course to try and glean any information that would progress the investigation. It wouldn’t be used afterwards, it couldn’t be used obviously, look, I did it but I’m not going to say a word, I am going to keep quiet. Then you’d be on the right track, you couldn’t use it but it would be a great help.
Chair: And that was done with the knowledge and approval of senior officers, you’re saying?
White: It would be done, yes, with the D/I or the D/Super in the area.

An issue for bloggers?

The Morris Tribunal has recently made transcriptions available to the public. The day I have been most interested in of late is Day 434. It occurs to me that certain aspects of placing this material online have not occurred to the Tribunal.

For example at Ref 666:

Chairman Morris:

…So I’m going to make a request to the media for the moment that those names be excluded from any reports there may be. By all means report in full the contents of what Sargeant White has said, but please do avoid using the names in a way that would identify the two people involved until such time as we have had an oppurtunity of considering where we go from there.

But the two Gardai are clearly named by White a paragraph above. What do bloggers do in this situation?