Deputy Dick Spring gave me notice of his intention to raise on the Adjournment the subject matter of alleged Garda brutality. Deputy Spring has 20 minutes to present his case and the Minister of State has ten minues to reply.
Adjournment Debate. - Garda Brutality Allegation.
On Friday last, I sent a letter to the Minister for Justice outlining the details of an alleged assault on an innocent person by a number of members of the Garda Síochána. The circumstances described in that letter constitute, in my view, one of the most serious cases that I have ever been made aware of.
I have spoken personally to a number of witnesses to the incident and to the victim. I have seen photographs that were taken at the time, and I have supplied copies of those photographs to the Minister. They leave no doubt that the young man in this case was brutally and viciously beaten. The evidence available suggests two things very strongly: firstly, this assault was undertaken by gardaí whose identity is known to me and, secondly, it was both unprovoked and totally unjustified. The most important thing I want to hear the Minister say — in response to this set of circumstances — is that there will be no cover-up of this incident. This House must get an assurance that it will be fully and publicly investigated. In light of the circumstances I am going to outline, I believe it is also imperative that all the gardaí involved must immediately be removed from duty pending a full and satisfactory outcome to the investigation.
The name of the victim in this case is Derek Fairbrother. Mr. Fairbrother is 24 years old and a graduate of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers. He has no previous history of trouble of any sort with the Garda, and, in fact, is of such good character that he is considered fit by the gardaí in Finglas to hold a gun licence. He is employed in the family business of installing and maintaining refrigeration, washing and other equipment in the catering trade, as well as in the management and running of a family owned pub, the "Ailesbury Inn", in Glasnevin.
On Saturday, 11 June last, after the pub was closed and tidied, Mr. Fairbrother remained behind to carry out a duty known as clearing the beer lines. This is a duty that can only be effectively carried out when the pub is closed. It takes several hours to complete. He left the pub some time around 3.30 a.m., uniformed gardaí got into the back seat and went to a friend's house. After some time he left with some friends — five of them — and was driving them home in a Nissan Prairie Estate car.
At approximately 5.30 a.m. he was driving on the main road approaching the dual carriageway leading from Finglas South to Glasnevin with a view to turning left towards Finglas. As he approached the yield sign he slowed and stopped. Immediately an unmarked car with two male occupants in casual clothes pulled up in front of him. One of them jumped out and directed Mr. Fairbrother to pull across the road as they wanted to check him for drunken driving. He did as he was directed and then demanded identification from the people concerned. One of the two men flashed identification at him, allowing him no more than a glance. The men said they were police officers, but their car was unmarked.
Derek Fairbrother got out of the car. At no stage was he unco-operative. He told them he was quite prepared to be breathalysed even though he had no drink taken. He does, however, appear to have suggested that one of the men should try the breathalyser himself. They did not have one in their own car, and radioed for the local squad car to come. While waiting for the arrival of the squad car, Derek Fairbrother and one of his friends, who had also got out of the Nissan, sat on a low wall chatting. According to all of the witnesses, nothing took place in the nature of a disagreement or argument. No resistance of any kind was shown by anybody.
After a few minutes, an official squad car and another unmarked car arrived. The official car had three uniformed officers. It is unclear how many were in the other car. The uniformed gardaí approached Derek Fairbrother who was identified to them by the two men who had originally stopped him. They demanded that Mr. Fairbrother get into the back of the squad car. There was no caution or any other investigation of the circumstances. Notwithstanding that, Mr. Fairbrother immediately proceeded to get into the back of the car. As he was walking towards the squad car, without any warning, he was suddenly struck several times on the head by batons. His injuries later show four deep long wounds which clearly came from some hard instrument being brought down hard on the left top side of his head. One of the photographs in my possession is a photograph of these injuries.
Blood immediately poured from these wounds, and the gardaí continued to push Mr. Fairbrother into the back of the squad car. He was thrown prostrate on to the back seat of the car; two of the uniformed gardaí got into the back seat also. One of them sat on top of Mr. Fairbrother and they continued to beat him while the squad car was driving to Finglas Garda station, about three-quarters of a mile away. A milkman and his helpers who were passing at the time, but otherwise were not involved, witnessed this incident and confirmed that there appeared to be no resistance by Mr. Fairbrother or any involvement by the others.
During this short journey Mr. Fairbrother was bleeding heavily, with the result that he, his clothes and the gardaí, as well as the squad car, were saturated with blood. Witnesses have confirmed that when the squad car arrived at the Garda station, he was physically dragged out of the car, thrown to the ground, and beaten and kicked again. He tried to protect himself by crawling under the squad car. Later, the sergeant in charge suggested that Mr. Fairbrother was crawling under the car in an attempt to turn it over. He was then carried into a cell. It appears that in the cell several gardaí continued to beat him. No effort was made to treat his wounds or to clear up the blood. No attempt was made by either of the two sergeants in charge to stop this brutality.
Accordingly to my investigation, a ban-garda called for an ambulance when Mr. Fairbrother arrived at the Garda station. When this ambulance arrived, a Garda officer told them it was a false alarm and that they were not required. However, they saw enough blood, and heard enough commotion in the back of the Garda station, to make them suspicious. When the ambulance got back to base, they telephoned their headquarters for instructions in the circumstances. They were told that if a further call came in, they were to get the name of the person calling. About an hour later there was a further call, apparently from the same source, requesting an ambulance to come back to the station. The same team as on the first occasion went back to the station. When they arrived, they were brought into a room where Derek Fairbrother was lying face down on the ground. He appeared to have been dragged in from another room. There was a person present who identified himself as a doctor, although he offered Mr. Fairbrother no assistance whatsoever. The ambulance men treated Mr. Fairbrother's wounds as best they could, and helped him out to get him on a stretcher. He was taken to the Mater Hospital and held there until last Wednesday night.
At the time that he was taken away, two of his friends hailed a passing taxi and followed the squad car immediately to Finglas station. One of them remained at the station, and the other went on with the taxi to notify Mr. Fairbrother's family. Within 15 minutes of Mr. Fairbrother arriving at the Garda station, members of his family had arrived. They were not allowed to see him. During the incident, his father, two brothers and several other people all arrived at the station. They were all treated with absolute contempt and abuse and given no hearing whatsoever. In fact, his father was threatened that he would be locked up also if he did not get off the premises. One of Derek Fairbrother's brothers managed to take photographs which show the condition he was in, the blood in the squad car and on the ground, and the efforts of the ambulance men to help him. Although they could hear Derek Fairbrother shouting for help in the station, they were unable to get near him.
I have met Mr. Fairbrother since his discharge from hospital and I can testify to the trauma that he has suffered. Although I am not an expert, it appears to me that it will be a long time, if ever, before he gets over this incident. Perhaps even worse than that, since I first became aware of this incident, I have been made aware of a number of incidents which all point to one conclusion — pressure is being brought to bear on the family involved, by sources within the Garda Síochána, to persuade them to facilitate a covering up of this incident. It is to their eternal credit that they have stood firm against this pressure.
An incident like this causes tremendous discredit to our gardaí, the vast majority of whom are honourable and decent people. The only thing that could cause greater discredit would be any attempt to cover it up, and to protect any guilty parties.
The evidence available to me leads me to conclude that seven officers of different ranks were involved. I intend to supply the names of those officers to the Minister for Justice and I will be insisting that all seven be suspended until an investigation is completed. It would be disgraceful, to put it at its mildest, if any of these officers was allowed the opportunity to continue to terrorise ordinary people. A serious and grave wrong has been inflicted on an innocent victim by persons whose responsibility it is to protect citizens and maintain law and order. I am demanding that the Minister for Justice set about righting this wrong immediately and that he take whatever steps are necessary to ensure that an incident like this cannot recur in Finglas or in any other part of the country.
I am representing the Minister for Justice who is on official duties outside the country. Both the Minister for Justice and I are naturally very concerned about this matter. These are extremely serious allegations and they have yet to be put to the test of truth.
I am informed that as soon as the allegations in question were received they were immediately referred to the Commissioner by the Department of Justice. The Commissioner has reported that a complaint in the matter had already been received by the local district officer and that a Garda investigation into the matter was already in progress. That investigation has not yet been completed. The Garda authorities have also brought the complaint to the notice of the Garda Síochána Complaints Board, the independent body established to investigate complaints by members of the public against members of the force.
I am also informed that on the basis of the information available at present, the circumstances giving rise to this incident are likely to be the subject of court proceedings. Accordingly, it would be improper for me to make any further comment and indeed further comment could run the risk of prejudicing the court proceedings.
With regard to the question of the suspension of members from duty, the position is that under the terms of the Garda Síochána (Discipline) Regulations, 1971, this is a matter for the Commissioner, who would have to be satisfied, before taking a decision to suspend a member, that the facts justified such action.
The Garda authorities are conscious of the need in the interests of all concerned to have the investigation of the allegations in this case completed as a matter of urgency and both the Minister for Justice and I have their assurance that this will be done.
The Dáil adjourned at 8.45 p.m. until 10.30 a.m. on Wednesday, 22 June 1988.