The former Garda arrested on Friday and questioned over an alleged rape and sexual assault, under the Criminal Law (Rape) Amendment Act, 199O, rose to the rank of Chief Superintendent which is the rank below Assistant Commissioner.
He was assigned to a unit investigating child sexual abuse, adult sexual abuse, human trafficking and organised prostitution.
He appeared regularly in the media as a spokesperson on Garda investigations into sex abuse and rape cases
He also worked on investigations into allegations of sexual abuse that took place in Mother and Baby Homes.
M-Compass Media is aware that a number of child sex abuse files he submitted to the DPP resulted in decisions not to prosecute.
M-Compass Media has been contacted by a lady who got to know this individual when he began to re-investigate her historic case of child sexual abuse following a botched investigation by local Gardai.
The news of the arrest has left her feeling very traumatised and “in a deep state of shock“.
“I allowed this man to sit in my home over the course of a year before I eventually built up enough trust in him to make several disclosures. My previous experience with the Gardaí left me extremely cautious and suspicious of them,” she said.
“He supervised the preparation of the file that was submitted to the DPP. Shortly afterwards, I was told that the DPP had decided that there would be no prosecution. This really shocked me because there was a huge amount of coobberating evidence that would have supported my disclosures,“ she explained, “and I was very surprised at the speed with which the decision was made.”
This lady is adamant that she wants to give this man the benefit of the doubt and that he is innocent until proven guilty. She wonders if he has been stitched up to discredit the groundwork he might have done to assist in the prosecution of high-ranking influential paedophiles.
“The idea of this man being convicted of the allegations of rape and sexual abuse made against him disgusts me to the core of my being,” she says.
“If that is the case, was he getting some kind of kick out of questioning victims of sexual abuse like me?” she wonders.
The arrest of this former Garda who was involved in the investigation of child sex abuse at the very highest level calls for an investigation independent of the Gardai.
The failure to investigate and prosecute child sexual abuse has been raised by the Alliance of Birthmothers Campaigning for Justice (ABC) since it was set up in June 2019.
ABC is Ireland’s leading independent non-Tusla funded advocacy group supporting mothers in difficulty with Tusla, Gardai and Family Court.
Spokesperson for ABC Barbara Scanlon said the failure to investigate and prosecute child sexual abuse was raised at our recent press conference which was addressed by Deputy Bernard Durkan and Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín.
“We advocate on behalf of some mothers whose children were taken when they reported child sexual abuse to the Gardaí and Tusla. The mothers were accused of parental alienation and custody of the children was given to the perpetrators of this abuse,” she told M-Compass Media. “Bernard Durkan has raised the issue of the treatment of mothers and their children in the Family Court on more than twenty occasions since last September.
What scandal is it going to take to open the floodgates and get justice for victims of sexual abuse and their families?” she asked.
The former Garda was released Friday eveningwithout charge. Reports in the media say investigations are ongoing and a file will be prepared for the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions and that former colleagues are shocked by his arrest.