Detective fails to get disciplinary inquiry halted in High Court

A detective acquitted of forging a letter from the Director of Public Prosecutions in relation to the investigation of an allegation of sexual abuse against a priest has failed to get High Court orders halting a disciplinary inquiry.

Mr Justice Michael White rejected arguments by Det Garda Catherine McGowan, attached to Bray Garda station, who argued she should not be subject to a disciplinary inquiry as she was acquitted in a criminal process in 2015.

This was not a case where the subject matter of the earlier criminal trial mirrors closely the disciplinary process, he said. The “serious” issues raised in the inquiry “go to the heart of responsible policing”.

There was a “much wider” allegation of breach of discipline against Det McGowan alleging she did not do her job properly as a member of the Garda Síochána, neglected to pursue a serious complaint and, to overcome her failure, attempted to deflect it by covering up her mismanagement of the file, he said.

He accepted the criminal trial and attendant publicity was a “severe ordeal” but the conduct of individual gardaí can be legally scrutinised in a disciplinary hearing, the judge said.

There was “no question” of double jeopardy as the issues went much wider than the “narrow focus” of the criminal trial where her innocence was established.

‘Serious failure’

It was “self-evident” from the notice of inquiry served on Det McGowan that many issues in the allegations of neglect of duty and discreditable conduct could never be the subject of a criminal allegation against her “but could be regarded as a serious failure to discharge her duties as a member of the Garda Síochána”.

He ruled that Det McGowan was not entitled to orders quashing the Garda commissioner’s June 2015 decision to set up a board of inquiry into alleged breaches of discipline. Those include neglect of duty in allegedly failing to properly investigate an allegation of defilement of a child aged between 15-17 years made by a named woman and reported to the Garda in February 2007.

Earlier, outlining the background, the judge said a complaint was made by a woman in 2005 to the Catholic Archdiocese of Dublin alleging she was sexually abused in the 1980s by a priest. The archdiocese notified gardaí of the complaint and it was investigated in the Bray district. The woman then withdrew the complaint but renewed it in 2007.

Disciplinary inquiry

Det McGowan was assigned to investigate it and her alleged failure to do so was the subject matter of the disciplinary inquiry.

Separate from the disciplinary procedure, a criminal investigation was commenced which ultimately led to Det McGowan being charged and acquitted, by unanimous jury verdict, of one count of forgery and two counts of using a false instrument. The instrument was alleged to have been a letter from the office of the DPP which prosecutors alleged Det McGowan had forged to “hoodwink” gardaí­ reviewing whether she acted properly in investigating the allegation of sexual abuse.