What was that comment gerry and by whom?

At a protest in mayo where we had the old Garda vs protester face off the guards were as usual been accused of been in the pocket of shell etc usual insults. However the protest was a week or two after that young Garda was crushed against a wall tying to stop a car in Donegal. One of the protesters shouted at the guards something along the lines “ye all deserve what yer man got in Donegal” it was on YouTube I just can’t find it now I need it.

Cheers gerry, I didn’t know that, a very shameful and cowardly thing to say

There was also the “The IRA didn’t kill half enough of ye” comment to the English security guard. And that’s when they knew the camera was there!

Closet unionist

Totally agree with you.

Three words spring to mind…..storm,tea and cup! Move on, case closed. If gardai submitted an altered tape into evidence in a case, it would be dismissed straight away and gardai who edited such tape would be prosecuted. Shell to sea have rightly made a laughing stock of themselves, altering the evidence to gain an advantageous outcome for themselves.

Rape should never be a joke – bottom line. What message does it send to rape victims to hear Gardai making such remarks? Especially when the Gardai are meant to be the first point of contact for a rape victim seeking protection and support.

Niall, that was discussed on the interview with Matt Cooper. The only edit to the recording (it wasnt a tape, like the Gardai and the ombudsman suggested) was some of the Student files were deleted. Not one single portion of the Garda recording was tampered with. This was the whole point of the interview today. So not only did the Gardai make these despicable comments suggesting they might rape the women, but we then had the ombudsman suggesting that the women had somehow interfered with the recording, which was totally untrue. Pure sickening.

Cal, Didnt hear the interview.

Fact of the matter is still there were things removed, things that no one knows, apart from the protestor.
They didnt just press delete on them, they were properly removed in NUIM, suggests to me there was something a little more there..

Cal if you were accused of something disgusting and you found out that the Gardaí deleted some of the video evidence would you be happy to be told “it wasn’t relevent”? I think not.

@cal im not suggesting what the Gardai said was justified but the link below shows a video on youtube of the protesters being removed from the tractor. It was recorded appartly before the woman’s recording started. In it you can hear a female voice say the word rape on two occasions. This might go some way to explaining, not justifing, why they joked about raping her in reply to what appears to be a false and ludacris allegation of rape against the gardai present

Again Niall, i challenge you to listen to the interview … it really sounds like we were sold a pup by the Gardai and the ombudsman on this one …. The PSNI forensic team investigated the file and admitted the specific file in question (ie recording with the Gardai) was not in any way interfered with. Only confidential student file recordings were removed from the disk. The fact that you, me and most of the country envisaged someone with a tape recording, slicing and dicing the recording to make the Gardai sound bad, goes to show how well the ombudsman played us.

I’m fairly sure the term “rape tape” was not thought up by the Gardaí but by the media. And the question remains, why were any recordings removed instead of just copied? These same people would not accept that kind of tainted evidence if it was used against them.

Bottom line is … the hard drive or whatever was used to capture the recordings was tampered with before it was handed over and the truth will never be known.
No matter what the recordings were of their confidentiality or admissibility should have been a Judge’s decision to make if it went to court, not the staff at NUIM

Can’t believe how gullible some of the readers of the journal are, to think that the Garda in Ireland are this whiter than white organisation with a transparent investigation process!

So let me get this straight, as I understand what happened initially some of the female protesters themselves said the word “rape”, not the gardai and it was in this context that these gardai later joked about this.
Now these gardai made their comments in another car, behind the one in which the women were in, and it was in this car that that the infamous camcorder accidently recorded their conversation. If this is the case their comments, however inappropriate and distasteful, are not a crime. Think about it. How many of us can honestly say we never had a private conversation that we would’nt want recorded, who never told one of those sick – but darkly funny jokes? Taken out of context this could be portrayed as, well anything, but the reality is something very different. This whole thing is all about reality, perception and truth, and how someone has tried to twist them.

Putting the two tapes together the protestors were removed from the roof of a vehicle. While the Gardaí were doing this one of the protestors shouted “rape”. As they were being arrested, one of the protestors alleged that her friend had been assaulted and wasn’t safe with “that man”. The Gardaí on the video were in a different vehicle than the arrested people and were joking about the idea of them being rapists

If evidence is tampered with in any shape or form, my understanding is that it can not be used in a court of law. They should have handed over the tape without difficulty and without any changes to ensure that the investigation was fully above board.

If this was any other general case and the case was thrown out because evidence was tampered with there would be fury that it was let happen.

Kevin, that is exactly the same as saying that a PC or laptop can never be admissed in a court of law, as files etc are deleted off them all the time… but don’t let truth inconvenience your defense of these actions.

You’re missing the point Cal. A PC or laptop in which the defendant deleted stuff would be admissable. A Pc or laptop where the Gardaí deleted stuff which may have been relevant would not be acceptable.

Going on the last word interview, the girl in question made the point that it was the original recording, it was a digital file and the Gardai can verify its originality but didn’t bother. The ombudsman didn’t deny this. Total whitewash.

So in the past week, we’ve learned that if your a Garda or an ex Garda, you can lie during an investigation. Conspire to rape someone and if your a really UNLUCKY Garda. You can drive uninsured, run a person over and kill them in a non road worthy vehicle, without road tax or full licence! AND GET A FINE!!! Who said Garda investigations, whether done internally or by the “INDEPENDENT” Garda ombudsman weren’t impartial and fair?

Conspire to rape someone? Now who’s doing an injustice to real survivors of rape?

Who lied during the investigation? One ex sergeant did not answer questions, as his constitutionally guaranteed right to silence allows. In another case a Garda ran over two people who were fighting in the middle of a dual carriageway. His driving did not contribute the tragic events, and he was prosecuted for various ancillary matters. He was fined accordingly. I’m amazed at the number of posts recently that say gardai are above the law, and then cite court cases where gardai are actually being prosecuted for wrongdoing….surely thats contrary to their argument somewhat.

I’ve seen bigger fines handed out for motoring offences! (without actually killing somebody) If you get arrested for something and you refuse to answer questions it could be taken, as withholding evidence! If your a retired Garda sergeant it’s ok to say no comment!

Yeah, because if the Garda had of been in possession of a valid licence and road tax the two people lying down in the road that he ran over definitely would have survived.

The charges and the deaths, as has been pointed out, were unrelated.

My goodness, your keen legal mind has found a loophole in that pesky constitutional right to silence. You should tell the DPP who can instruct investigators to demand answers during questioning and charge people with “withholding information”. I’m glad you’re not in charge! You’d have us in a police state.

Maybe if the Garda had have been a law abiding citizen and not been driving. Then he wouldn’t have put himself in a position where he could run people over!

BB judging by your comments. You would be all for a police state because through your rose tinted glasses, the Garda can do no wrong.

justsaying; You are fully entitled not to speak. It doesn’t help in a court if your prosecuted, but its your right and many people take up that right. Just because he is a Garda, doesn’t mean he cant use his rights. Also, re: motor fines – I think it depends on the offense and depends on the judge how high he sets the fine. Either way, there have been Gardai prosecuted through independent investigations so they are not above the law.

Justsaying, I’m neither pro nor anti Garda, I just look for a balanced debate. I’ve never defended wrongdoing, and don’t defend the actions of these gardai. I’m just pointing out, that to me, the gardai are not above the law as they have been prosecuted for crimes. I’ve used examples and fact to make this argument, not misinformation and emotive language.

Have any of you or your mates ever been falsely accused of rape? Falsely accused of anything?

Off the top of my head, I’ve seen rape jokes in; Family Guy, American Dad, Step Brothers, Let’s Go to Prison, Horrible Bosses, 30 Rock and Blazing Saddles. I’ve seen Sarah Silverman, Dave Chapelle and Joan Rivers all joke about rape. It’s not like this is a first

Don’t forget our own Tommy Tiernan

@Sean H

The comments the gardai made were taking the piss out of the ludicrous allegation the protester made against the Garda saying a Garda said he would rape her.

There is a recording where she can be heard saying the rape word twice before their camera started recording.

The Garda in the car while being recorded didn’t threaten to rape or joke about raping her. He was laughing and joking about the ludicrous comment that she made.

No media report this fact and as such lots of uninformed mass hysteria happens on here and other places.

This has been known and in the public domain for a long time.

The shell to sea people wouldn’t be happy if the tables were turned. If this type of evidence was so questionable and things were the other way around they’d be up in arms.

They said it in the context of the protesters when asked to move said ‘if I don’t what are u goin to do rape me? Deport me?’ so the gard was recounting that and that’s where the ‘joke’ came in. It’s not something you would joke about but in that context you can understand how it came up.

A sham you say? What about these cases;
http://www.rte.ie/news/2012/0313/garda.html
http://www.newstalk.ie/2012/news/garda-convicted-of-dangerous-driving/
http://www.kerryman.ie/news/listowel-garda-convicted-of-assault-2930103.html
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2011/0808/breaking29.html

Gardai who committed a crime and were convicted. The system? Seems to work looking at those cases.

And all given light sentences funnily enough. Though I was referring to this case in particular, yes the investigation had its outcome from the start. Total pr exercise. The ombudsman sounded ashamed yesterday.

Or maybe Anne-Marie most people realise what kind of people are involved in shell-to-sea & looked at the facts in this case.

I thumbed down michael fagan’s random meaningless platitude.

I’m not a garda.

Get over your paranoia.

@ Paul, for what it’s worth I don’t have any particular opinion of Shell to Sea either way, I just think the sheer amount of thumbs down is completely mind-boggling. Even when someone like Sinead up above was pointing out that Gardai shouldn’t be making rape jokes (which they shouldn’t, under ANY circumstances) and without a mention of Shell to Sea, has 46 people disagreeing with her. To me, that’s highly unusual

I gave you a thumbs up AnneMarie, because I was thinking exactly the same. I was wondering what the reactions would have been if the women in question weren’t members of Shell to Sea. To all the males here, defending the gardai, think about the matter again and try to think the women were your sisters or friends, instead of first associating them with a protest you don’t agree with.

Not related to Anne in any way and I agree with her. No need to call all Garda scum either. Always seems to be black and white when it’s not.
Joking about rape is simply wrong when you are in a position of authority and power, it’s obvious that the amount of negative thumbs down on these comments are from one side of the story and only further polarises people’s views to express the other.

@sinead your are correct, rape is not nor should not be joked about however making a false allegation of rape can be as damaging to actually victims
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLW_qKZTtc8

Joking is not condoning. Everything gets joked about; murder, the holocaust, assault, racism, disabilities – everything. That doesn’t mean the people telling the joke are murderers, nazis, racists, thugs or anything else

Here’s a joke about murdering policemen. Do you think that’s not a serious issue when it happens? Do you think the writer’s are condoning it? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuxO6CZptck&feature=fvwrel Of course not!

I hope you don’t need one of the “scum” to risk his life saving your miserable one.

So you all like Garda who make a joke of rape?