Courts set the tone for gardaí

■ The treatment meted out to Joanne Hayes by some investigating officers of An Garda Síochána during the Kerry Babies debacle was heinous.

The Hayes family were exposed to appalling conduct by an aggressive Garda questioning regime, the roots of which could be traced back to the establishment of the ‘Heavy Gang’ in 1976. This ‘Heavy Gang’ were gardaí who specialised in the extraction of confessions amid claims of illtreatment while in custody. Members of the then government were made aware of these allegations yet decided to ignore them.

Speaking in 1998, Dr Conor Cruise O’Brien, a former government minister, revealed that he had in 1974 supported police brutality by a group of gardaí that went on to beat confessions out of, and obtain convictions against, innocent people.

Dr O’Brien and the government, by their inaction, set a standard of behaviour among gardaí that was damaging not only to civil liberties, but to the reputation of the force.

Despite trial by jury being a bulwark of our Constitution, the government sanctioned the use of special legislation by the non-jury Special Criminal Court which was repugnant to the basic principles of justice and liberty.

As the behaviour and attitudes of courts are a determining factor in the behaviour of the Garda, it was perceived that if the courts were taking short cuts to get convictions, then gardaí could do the same.

And they did.

Tom Cooper Templeogue, Dublin 6W