Garda boss asked how he and colleagues deal with suspended prison terms being handed down

A SENIOR garda in Sligo would not be drawn when asked how he felt when court sentences handed down for crimes detected by his officers resulted in suspended sentences rather than actual time in prison for offenders.

Having detailed a series of recent successes by gardaí in the Sligo Leitrim Division where the final court sentence was a suspended prison term rather than an actual jail term, Chief Superintendent Aidan Glacken was asked by members of Sligo County Council if he felt a sense of frustration when sentences were suspended.

The top garda in Sligo Leitrim made no comment in response to comments from Cllr Dónal Gilroy who commended the gardaí for their work but suggested how “as ordinary people, not as councillors, everyone feels frustration when they see suspended prison sentences handed down”.

Cllr Arthur Gibbons, referring to a recent high profile case in Sligo, said he had an issue with concurrent prison terms being imposed rather than consecutive terms where defendants were convicted of more than once offence.

Cllr Gibbons and Cllr Dara Mulvey both raised the issue of abuse which gardaí receive in the course of their work, Cllr Gibbons suggesting that anyone who puts a video in a garda’s face while insulting them as they record them should be found guilty of an offence.

“That person should be arrested on the spot and there should be a heavy fine for doing that, nobody deserves that abuse in their place of work,” he said.

Cllr Mulvey added: “It must be very frustrating for gardaí to have a mobile phone shoved in their face. It’s as if they are waiting for the garda to something wrong, to react and to capture that on camera,” he said.

Chief Superintendent Glacken said he appreciated the encouragement from the councillors for the work gardaí do.