Courts / Dublin / Report

Gardai have turned CCTV into "de facto surveillance operation", trial told

Date
2019-10-22

Stage
Charge Or Pretrial

Primary locality
Dublin

County
Dublin

Summary

In a Special Criminal Court hearing on 22 October 2019, Defence Counsel argued that An Garda Síochána unlawfully converted Dublin's CCTV network into a "de facto surveillance operation" in the investigation of Liam Brannigan, 37, charged with conspiring to murder Gary Hanley between 15 September and 6 November 2017. The counsel highlighted that Gardaí collected 3,500 hours of footage from businesses across Dublin and installed secret listening devices in six suspect cars. He noted that the officer directing the CCTV collection denied whether the systems were registered with the Data Protection Commissioner, contrary to law. The counsel contended that Gardaí knowingly used unregistered CCTV systems, thereby breaching data protection and criminal law, and requested exclusion of the CCTV and audio evidence. The court would decide on the submissions by the following Tuesday. Liam Brannigan pleaded not guilty.

Who, what, where, when and why

What: Report matter: Gardai have turned CCTV into "de facto surveillance operation", trial told. Charges or matters: conspiring to murder Gary Hanley at a location within the State between September 15th and November 6th, 2017. Procedural stage: charge_or_pretrial

When:

September 15th Hearing Or Sentence
November 6th, 2017 Hearing Or Sentence
2019-10-22 Publication

Why: "So what gardai are doing is they are habitually using all of the CCTV systems in operation in all of the homes and businesses throughout the city of Dublin, knowing that those systems are not functioning in compliance with the law, knowing indeed that because they're not registered that they're actually functioning in breach of criminal law. CNI source report