ONE OF THE garda officers who was allegedly caught on tape making rape jokes about two Corrib protesters whom Gardaí had arrested has been commended for his work on rape investigations in the past, according to a report.
The story has been reported in today’s Sunday Independent as more allegations and details of the scandal emerge including names and photographs of some of the officers involved which have been printed in the Irish Mail on Sunday.
Gardaí and the Garda Ombudsman have opened an investigation after members of the force were accidentally recorded on a video camera, apparently joking about threatening to rape and deport women, who they had arrested on public order offences at a protest against the Corrib gas project last month.
The two women later discovered that Gardaí had inadvertently recorded themselves on a confiscated video camera making the offensive remarks.
The Independent says that the garda sergeant who was recorded had been commended by state prosecutors for his work on a complex rape investigation. Colleagues told the paper his comments were totally out of character.
The Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan has apologised for the remarks against the two women one of whom identified herself as Jerrie Ann Sullivan at a press conference last week.
The Sunday Independent also publishes a poll in which it reports that just 18 per cent of those asked wanted the Gardaí at the centre of the storm to be fired with 58 per cent saying they should be reprimanded and retrained.
A poll by TheJournal.ie last week found that 53 per cent of you thought that joking about rape is not socially acceptable in response to comments by TV3 broadcaster Vincent Browne who said that rape jokes “are just part of the lingo of Irish males.”
Yesterday, around 100 protesters gathered outside Belmullet Garda station in north Mayo to call for an independent and international investigation into policing at the Corrib gas site, RTÉ reports.
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