Court asked to overturn lawful killing finding

A woman whose partner was shot dead by gardaí during an attempted armed robbery of a cash-in-transit van wants the High Court to overturn a Commission of Investigation finding of lawful killing.

Grainne Nic Gibb's partner, Ronan MacLochlainn (28), was shot dead in the 1998 incident in Ashford, Co Wicklow.

Ms Nic Gibb’s lawyer claimed gardaí were in a position to stop the attempted robbery beforehand and arrest Mr MacLochlainn but instead “went for the spectacular”.

Ms Nic Gibb wants the court to delete the commission’s finding from its draft report and make findings about the adequacy of the evidence on which the disputed finding was made.

The commission, whose sole member is senior counsel Mary Rose Gearty, was set up in 2014 and heard 60 days of evidence.

Consider

The application for the report to be amended under the Commissions of Investigation Act 2004 came before Ms Justice Mary Faherty on Tuesday.

She adjourned the case to later this month to consider the report and submissions. Neither Ms Gearty nor the Garda Commissioner, a notice party to the case, were represented.

The commission was set up after Ms Nic Gibb brought proceedings in the European Court of Justice following an inquest in 2010.

James MacGuill, solicitor for Ms Nic Gibb, said it was his client’s case the commission’s finding of lawful killing was unsafe.

There were “unexplained gaps” in evidence and a combination of factors which made it impossible for an independent fact finder to safely come to a conclusion.