Calls for full public probe into gun killing of garda
THE family of shooting vitcim Siobhán Phillips is calling for a public inquiry into the killing of Garda Tony Golden and the injuring of the young mother by her abusive partner. The Garda Ombudsman has now confirmed it launched an inquiry six months ago into the incident amid concerns killer Adrian Crevan Mackin was a Garda informer.
Mackin, 24, was on bail charged with IRA membership when he shot dead Garda Golden in October 2015 in Omeath, Co. Louth.
He also shot his former girlfriend, mother-of-two Ms Phillips, several times in the same incident as the officer brought her to collect belongings from the house she shared with Mackin. The gunman killed himself after the shooting.
The GSoc inquiry is examining how Mackin was handled by detectives after being arrested on suspicion of firearms offences but charged with the more minor offence of IRA membership.
An RTÉ Investigates programme reported that Mackin was arrested after the FBI notified gardaí of his alleged involvement in attempts to buy component pieces for firearms. The programme said he admitted firearms offences but was only charged with IRA membership, even though he denied being a member of a terror group.
It was also reported that Mackin was kicked off the republican wing in Portlaoise Prison.
Belfast-based Madden & Finucane solicitors, the lawyers for Ms Phillips and her parents Seán and Norma, said: ‘This is a significant development in relation to the family’s pursuit for information and accountability... and the serious threat to the family beforehand. These revelations raise issues of significant public importance and require an investigation at the highest level.’
Solicitor Katie McAllister said the Phillips family had instructed lawyers to take High Court action against the State.
Gardaí cannot run informers ‘off the books’ and all official informers must be registered on the list of Covert Human Intelligence Sources (CHIS).
Mackin had an illegally held Glock handgun when father-of-three Garda Golden, 36, went to the house on the Mullach Alainn estate in Omeath with Ms Phillips and her father Seán.
Mr Phillips heard the gunshots and called emergency services.
GSoc said its investigation was launched after it got information and complaints from several sources. The watchdog said inquiries ‘are at an early stage’.
GSoc will examine if gardaí ‘acted appropriately’ knowing that Mackin had access to guns and whether they mitigated the ‘serious risk’ this potentially posed to Ms Phillips, the public and gardaí. It also said it would look into the extent and nature of interaction between gardaí and Mackin, if Ms Phillips and her family were treated properly by gardaí and their complaints acted upon appropriately, or if there was a delay in the Garda review of the incident.
Fianna Fáil’s justice spokesman Jim O’Callaghan said that ‘if Mackin was a Garda informant... and was prosecuted with an offence that would facilitate his informing, rather than the serious offences to which he admitted... this needs to be explained by the relevant authorities’.
Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams said he had written to Taoiseach Enda Kenny four times and the Tánaiste eight times about the case and that their responses have been unsatisfactory. ‘All of the families affected by this need to have truth about the circumstances of Mackin’s arrest, questioning, charging and relationship with An Garda Síochána,’ he said.
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