Settlement talks break down with Golden family
TALKS TO REACH A SETTLEMENT FOR THE FAMILY OF GARDA TONY GOLDEN BROKE DOWN
SETTLEMENT talks between representatives of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Paschal Donohoe, and the legal team for the family of murdered Garda Tony Golden have broken down.
The officer was shot five times and killed in a murder-suicide attack while on duty at Omeath, Co Louth, just over three years ago.
It emerge that the assessment of compensation for Gda Golden’s widow, Nicola, and their three children, Andrew, Lucy and Alex, may now go to a full trial before Mr Justice Michael Twomey, who deals with all Garda compensation cases in the High Court.
Talks had been taking place in a bid to avert that necessity and family trauma of a full assessment hearing.
Gda Golden - who was in uniform and unarmed - had accompanied Siobhan Philips (23) on Sunday, October 11, 2015 to the house she shared with her physically abusive partner Adrian Crevan Mackin.
He was murdered by Mackin, a known dissident republican, in the murder-suicide attack.
Mackin shot the 36-year-old garda in an attack during which he also shot his partner Siobhan four times, including one bullet to her head, before turning the gun on himself and taking his own life.
Adrian Crevan Mackin was a known convicted criminal and had been charged with IRA membership months before his death and was on bail.
He had previously been given a threeyear suspended sentence on firearms charges in Northern Ireland.
Several inquiries were mounted into the tragic Omeath murder-suicide and the gun attack on Ms Philips
Ms Philips, who miraculously survived her terrible injuries, is currently living in Newry, Co Down.
She had two children by Mackin and has issued personal injury proceedings against the Commissioner of An Garda Síochána, the Minister for Justice, Ireland and the Attorney General alleging negligence.
Her Dundalk-based solicitors have, on her behalf, issued the claims which have been served on all the State parties she is suing.
Solicitors for the State have, in turn, entered appearances, documents legally indicating that proceedings have been properly served and that the company will be representing the defendants.
It is understood a defence is being prepared.
The inquest into the death of Gda Golden, which took place in Dundalk in April last year, concluded that he had been unlawfully killed.
Like his colleague Detective Garda Adrian Donohoe, murdered two-and-ahalf years earlier while on armed escort duty near the Border, Gda Golden was given a State funeral and posthumously awarded a Scott medal for bravery.
Det Gda Donohoe’s widow, former Gda Caroline Deloughrey and their two children, were recently awarded €1.3m compensation against the minister by Judge Michael Twomey.