The Supreme Court halted Garda complaints proceedings against two sergeants after finding that a lengthy delay caused by the Garda Síochána Complaints Board was unlawful.
Mr Justice Geoghegan allowed the appeal of Christopher McCarthy and John Dennedy on March 15, 2002. The proceedings arose from a complaint made after Derek Fairbrother was arrested and detained at Finglas Garda Station in June 1988.
Mr Fairbrother's solicitor initially complained that he had been wrongfully arrested, imprisoned and seriously assaulted by gardaí. Following investigation, the Complaints Board referred different disciplinary allegations against the two appellants. Sergeant McCarthy was accused of failing to ensure prompt medical treatment and hospitalisation after initially calling an ambulance. Sergeant Dennedy was accused of failing to allow Mr Fairbrother's family to visit him promptly while he was in custody.
The central issue on appeal was delay. In December 1988, the Board postponed its consideration of the complaint because it believed civil proceedings had already been instituted. They had not. Mr Fairbrother did not begin those proceedings for another 14 months, and the postponement ultimately accounted for about four years of delay.
The Supreme Court held that the original postponement decision was outside the Board's powers and that the resulting delay was gross and unlawful. It granted a declaration that the December 1988 decision was null and void and restrained the Garda Síochána Complaints Tribunal from holding the disciplinary inquiry or considering the allegations further.
The officers did not succeed on their second argument. The court held that disciplinary allegations need not reproduce the exact wording of the original public complaint provided they emerge clearly from the events investigated. Both sergeants had already given detailed statements explaining their conduct concerning the ambulance and family visits.
The appeal therefore succeeded on delay alone, not because the Complaints Board lacked power to formulate the revised disciplinary allegations.