The High Court has dismissed a man's challenge to a Garda decision which left him detained overnight after his second arrest for an alleged breach of a protection order.
The applicant, identified as G.W., was arrested in early October 2022 after posting on social media: “You will never stop me. They are my sons too. I’m coming.” His former partner complained that the message put her in fear.
He was already on station bail following an earlier alleged breach of the same protection order. After the second arrest, Sergeant Michael Coyne refused station bail and G.W. was brought before Dublin District Court the following day.
The applicant claimed his detention resulted from a Garda HQ directive stating that station bail could not be granted for breaches of domestic violence orders. He argued that this unlawfully restricted the discretion given to the Garda member in charge to decide whether release was prudent.
Ms Justice Siobhán Phelan said a fixed non-statutory policy could in principle unlawfully fetter such a discretion. However, she found that G.W. had failed to prove the disputed policy had influenced his case.
Evidence from Garda Keegan and Sergeant Coyne showed that the decision was instead based on the fact that this was a second alleged breach while G.W. was already on bail, concern that further breaches might occur, and a wish to have the District Court impose conditions that Gardaí could not impose through station bail.
The District Court subsequently released him on a €500 bond. Conditions included compliance with the protection order and no contact with his former partner except in relation to child access.
Phelan J was also critical of omissions in G.W.'s original evidence. He had not disclosed his earlier arrest and grant of station bail, and had incorrectly claimed that the prosecuting Garda consented to bail and that no additional court-only condition had been imposed.
The court found the refusal of station bail lawful and dismissed all reliefs sought. It therefore did not need to determine the legality of the Garda directive itself, which had in any event been rescinded in January 2025.