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NO GARDA CONDUCT has been found to be illegal or in breach of procedures in relation to the investigation surrounding the death of Shane O’Farrell, according to a GSOC report.
In 2011, 23-year-old O’Farrell was struck by a car driven by Zigimantas Gradzuiska. The Lithuanian national had previous convictions for offences including aggravated burglary, road traffic offences and the handling of stolen property.
Two weeks before the collision, he was arrested in Newry for three counts of theft. The day he struck O’Farrell, Gradzuiska was on bail from courts in both Monaghan and Cavan and on a peace bond from Louth Circuit Court.
For seven years, the O’Farrell family has been asking how Gradzuiska, a repeat offender who was on bail from multiple courts, was at liberty on the day Shane was killed.
Fianna Fáil’s Jim O’Callaghan has said had the gardaí been informed of the offence in the North he would not have been out in August in 2011.
RTÉ’s Prime Time revealed last night that a constable from the PSNI claims he did speak to the gardaí about Gradzuiska’s criminal record, and a letter was faxed through.
Today, the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (GSOC) published a report into its investigation into matters surrounding the death of O’Farrell.
A total of 56 allegations were investigated in that report, with the majority being found to be unsubstantiated, it states:
Fifty six separate allegations were investigated by GSOC. Having considered the investigators’ report, the commission is satisfied that there was no conduct (on the part of gardaí) that would constitute a criminal offence or offences.
“However, there was conduct that requires further investigation for possible breaches of the Garda Disciplinary Regulations. Thirteen of the 56 allegations are now the subject of disciplinary investigation under section 95 of the Garda Síochána Act 2005.”
The family are believed to be unhappy with the report’s findings.
Fianna Fáil’s John McGuinness has also criticised the report saying O’Farrell “would be alive if the gardaí had done their job”.
Separate investigations
The criminal and disciplinary investigations could not be carried out simultaneously as a criminal investigation must be completed before a disciplinary investigation can be carried out.
In this case, the criminal investigation has now been completed and the disciplinary investigation is underway.
The report stated that, “It was decided by GSOC that all the matters raised would form part of a wider investigation and that this investigation would be designated a criminal investigation (that is, under section 98 of the Garda Síochána Act 2005 which is conducted when complaints appear to or may involve offences).”
There are now calls for a public inquiry from Shane’s mother and 20 politicians from parties including Fianna Fáil and Sinn Féin.
However speaking yesterday Taoiseach Leo Varadkar pointed out that GSOC is an independent body that reviewed the case.
He also noted that a public inquiry often takes a very long time, and can often not return the outcomes or answers people are seeking.
Varadkar said he is “not ruling out a public inquiry” into the O’Farrell case, but reiterated such an investigation could take “many years”.
Banna Republic not surprised. Rest in peace shane.
Met his parents at an event not too long ago and they explained their son’s case to me in painstaking detail. They’ll be gutted with this report – they’re rightly furious about what happened to their child. The injustice of it all – and no accountability, when the facts of the case make it clear the killer should never have been free to kill Shane.
I don’t think a GSOC report is sufficient. A public inquiry is needed, despite the Taoiseach’s warnings about how long it’ll take.
His family surely won’t care about another few years of waiting – they’ve waited years for reports already. They want justice and accountability, and if it takes years, then it should happen. Get it done.
@ihcalaM: we are all furious. This is essentially whitewashing over a culture of incompetence, backed up by legal obfusciation.
Bannana Republic not suprised, the whole justice system left Shane and his family down. Rest in peace
@Cathal: The whole justice system lets ALL of us down, ALL of the time!! Unless of course you’re a solicitor or barrister benefiting from the free legal aid debacle and being paid with the taxpayer’s hard earned money!
A totally unnecessary loss of life.
Why does it take GSOC 6 years to conclude the initial investigation into the possibility of a criminal offence ? A major reason for the delay rests with the Gardai in taking an inordinate amount of time to reply to each query from GSOC, but questions must also be asked about the effectiveness of GSOC.
@Barry Foster: would you get up out of that aren’t gsoc not renowned for their slow effort in investigating things. Take for ever to notify the guards whether they are cleared or not etc sure they said it them selves they need more staff. That they now get 18 months to investigate cases the Garda only have 6 months to investigate
Un-fkn-believeable
If the young man was a government minister son there would be something done.
This badly needs a public enquiry
@Michael farrelly: It would achieve nothing. All potentially incriminating evidence would be at the bottom of Callinan’s shredded “personal” papers by now.
@Gulliver Foyle:
After Callinan was removed as Commissioner why was he subsequently allowed unsupervised access to his office and also allowed to destroy a sizeable amount of data.?
Has the GSOC actually ever found the Gardai or individual guards culpable for anything?
@Paul Devlin: They make sure they cant be found culpable.
Just so angry on behalf of Shane’s family and friends, no accountability, not even proper reason, or a genuine sence of regret…
An Garda Síochana are a long long way short of being a professional police force! Politicians bare significant responsibility for not resourcing the Gardai properly but even so it seems to me the “secure,pensionable job” plays a big part in attracting people to the job. Shameful behaviour.
@Fred Coloe: why do you say shameful behaviour, The ” Omnibus ” man investigated this and if there was any fault there then they would find it, in fact I believe that that they go out of my their way to try and “nail ” Gardai .
@Eugene Comaskey: examples please I’ve never where GSOC have nailed the gardai
What’s the point/purpose of having bail if criminals can have bail heaped on top of more bail with no comeback, disgraceful decision. Surely while on bail once an offense no matter how minor is committed then bail should be revoked.
Oh wow no surprise there .. once again it’s the victim being let down
Listened to this poor mother this morning.. Disgraceful the way the state are fighting her on this
O my god that is unbelievable …..why can’t we have a truly independent body to unravel these things ..more misery heaped on this family…somebody did wrong ..somebody
Offending while on bail by repeat serious offenders can only be done if the courts grant the privilege of bail again and again. Since he was a non national previously convicted of serious offences the courts could have ordered his deportation as well. As for the thefts in Newry that’s a foreign jurisdiction.
Gsoc are the gardai, this case is a crime against a normal everyday family, gardai hang your heads in shame. Disgusting
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