After six years, female garda still battling to clear name

A FEMALE garda is fighting to clear her name, after an inquiry into her conduct sparked the discovery of a series of damning Garda practices.

Detective Catherine McGowan, who was suspended from her post six years ago, was the only garda to face disciplinary action after a confidential report revealed systemic management failures at Bray Garda Station, according to the Irish Mail on Sunday.

The 48-year-old is now fighting to have her suspension lifted, and has spent thousands of euro on legal costs since her ordeal began.

Her battle stems from allegations that she failed to properly investigate a clerical sex abuse case. When she faced forgery charges linked to those allegations she was found not guilty.

In 2007, Detective McGowan was assigned to investigate complaints of alleged sexual abuse made by a woman against a priest.

Charges were not pursued, prompting the alleged victim to make a complaint about the investigation carried out by Det McGowan.

After receiving the complaint, then Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan sent an inquiry team to Bray, which led to the discovery of poor practices, missing files and cases not being recorded on Pulse.

A subsequent inquiry by the Garda Professional Standards Unit heavily criticised the management and procedures at the station, stating that ‘in 73% of cases of a sexual crime nature examined, supervisors did not carry out sufficient review of incidents’.

When requested by the inquiry team, 45% of files at the station could not be located at one point, with the operation of the Pulse IT system being strongly criticised.

Yet Detective McGowan was the only garda at the station to face disciplinary action.

No response was received from An Garda Síochána in response to a detailed list of questions from the MoS regarding this case.