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Garda Commissioner Drew Harris Sam Boal
Paul Moody

Special review into Paul Moody case ordered by Garda Commissioner

Moody was sentenced to three years and three months for coercive control last week.

GARDA COMMISSIONER DREW Harris has ordered a special case review into the actions of Paul Moody, a former Garda who last week was sentenced to three years and three months for coercive control.

Harris said that he had requested the special case review into Moody’s actions last week and that it would be “weeks, not months” before it is completed, with terms of reference already being provided.

The Journal has learned that one key aspect of the review will be a previous investigation of Moody and how that was handled.

Speaking to reporters this afternoon, Harris said that all the findings of the report would be made available to both Justice Minister Helen McEntee and the Policing Authority.

While Harris said that Garda policy prevented him from talking about Moody, he said that “justice had been served” and that a “thorough” investigation was carried out.

“I don’t want to talk about an individual, it is our policy not to speak about specific individuals, but what I can say is that we wish to learn lessons from this,” Harris said.

“Last October I spoke about the approach that we were taking: a review in terms of suspicions about members being the subject of protection orders, for instance, or members being engaged in crimes of domestic abuse,” Harris added, which was previously reported by the Irish Examiner.

When Harris was asked about evidence that was given in court about a call to a Garda station being redirected to Moody, he said that “all circumstances” would be examined.

“If we identify other wrongdoing by other members in An Garda Siochana, we’ll obviously deal with that in conjunction with the Garda Ombudsman as well.

“This is, in effect, ‘turn over every stone’, but in part we want to learn as well about the lessons that we need to learn around identifying individuals who are a risk to members of the public and who then use their position within An Garda Siochána for a maligned purpose.”

Moody, a 42-year-old, had carried out a four-year campaign of harassment, threats, assaults and coercive control of his partner.

During his sentencing last week, Judge Martin Nolan said that Moody had undertaken vile and humiliating criminal misbehaviour towards his 43-year-old victim.

New allegations connected with Moody are being investigated by gardaí after multiple people came forward with allegations against the former detective, sources said.

It is understood that some of those allegations are in relation to people he met while dating in Dublin and in Kildare.

The Journal reported yesterday that Moody was still active on dating sites Bumble and Tinder up until late last month, with photos of his profiles showing him socialising and dressed in a tuxedo.

Additional reporting by Niall O’Connor