The Supreme Court has unanimously overturned a High Court award of €175,000 to a retired garda who claimed he and a woman were wrongfully arrested and detained 14 years ago on suspicion of being members of the IRA.
While overturning the jury award to retired garda Joe Walshe (63), Oaklawn Drive, Dromin, Nenagh, Co Tipperary, the court upheld the award of €100,000 made to Kay Bedford (60), a separated mother of four, of Sir Harry's Hill, Limerick.
It held the evidence fell far short of what was required to ground an arrest in her case.
Both Mr Walshe and Ms Bedford were found by the High Court to have been unlawfully arrested on September 27th, 1991, in Limerick under section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act and detained for three days on suspicion of IRA membership.
Mr Walshe was at the time a plainclothes garda with 33 years of service and Ms Bedford was on friendly terms with him.
Both were detained for 40 hours and questioned at the Bridewell Garda station before their release. They both subsequently brought a claim for damages against the State and, in May 2003, a High Court jury awarded €175,000 damages to Mr Walshe and €100,000 to Ms Bedford.
The State appealed the awards and yesterday the Supreme Court upheld the jury award to Ms Bedford but found the arrest of Mr Walshe had been valid and set aside the jury award to him.
Mr Justice Nicholas Kearns said in his judgment the arrests took place as part of an investigation into "a matter of major concern" to the Garda authorities at the time - the infiltration of the Garda in Limerick by the IRA.
A substantial part of the judgment concerned the requirements sufficient for the arrest of of Mr Walshe under section 30.
The State had conceded a direction by "a superior officer" on its own was insufficient to ground an arrest. The direction to arrest was given after a lengthy investigation by Det Insp Anthony Fennessy into possible infiltration of Limerick's Garda ranks by the IRA and preparation of a C77 briefing document containing highly sensitive information.
That C77 document was not prepared by Det Insp Fennessy and named Mr Walshe and Ms Bedford as suspected IRA sympathisers.
Det Insp Fennessy had given evidence of seeing information about Garda Walshe in the C77 before Chief Supt Patrick Byrne (later Garda Commissioner) directed that Garda Walshe and Ms Bedford be arrested.
Det Insp Fennessy had said he had a suspicion about Garda Walshe based on the C77 and because "very sensitive and secret material and moles in the Garda Síochána were in Limerick, my authorities did see a very, very serious situation and they took the decision".
Mr Justice Kearns said the trial judge had unfortunately not fully addressed the importance of the C77 at the trial. It was undeniable that the reason for the arrest was the direction given by the superior officer. However, that did not mean the arresting officer did not have his own reasonable suspicion based on the C77.
On that basis, he allowed the State's appeal in the case of Mr Walshe and substituted a finding that the arrest had been valid and lawful. It followed that the award to the former garda must be set aside.
In Ms Bedford's case, the judge found the evidence which led to her arrest fell well short of what might be required to ground her arrest on the basis of a reasonable suspicion. He dismissed the State's appeal against Ms Bedford.
Sitting with Mr Justice Kearns were Chief Justice John Murray and Mr Justice Hugh Geoghegan.