Garda's appeal over tribunal findings is dismissed

A Garda from Donegal has failed in his appeal to the Court of Appeal to have findings made against him by the Disclosures Tribunal overturned. Garda Keith Harrison challenged a High Court decision dismissing his claim that the tribunal chair, Mr Justice Peter Charleton, was objectively biased due to prior professional contact with a key witness, Chief Superintendent Terry McGinn. Both had worked together at the Morris Tribunal, which examined allegations concerning Gardaí in Donegal between 2002 and 2005. Mr Justice Charleton had been Senior Counsel to that tribunal. The High Court found in 2019 that no reasonable person could reasonably apprehend bias from their overlapping working period. On Monday, a three-judge Court of Appeal panel comprising Mr Justice Seamus Noonan, Ms Justice Mary Faherty and Ms Justice Ann Power upheld that decision, finding Garda Harrison had not established objective bias. The Disclosures Tribunal had rejected allegations made by Garda Harrison and his partner, finding them entirely without validity.