A newspaper editor today described the arrest of a journalist over a report containing leaked information about a bungled Garda inquiry as an attack on press freedom.
Editor of the Evening HeraldStephen Rae was commenting after a former reporter and editor at the newspaper, Mick McCaffrey, was arrested this morning in Dublin.
A Detective Garda Sergeant was also been detained. Both were released without charge this evening.
Mr McCaffrey, currently security editor at the Sunday Tribune, wrote a story last year containing details of a Government-appointed investigation into Garda mishandling of an inquiry into the savage murder of two women in north Dublin in 1997.
Mr Rae said the arrest was "one of the most blatant attacks by the State on the very fundamentals of press freedom".
"Mick McCaffrey did what any professionals journalists would do - he reported the facts without fear or favour."
"It is noteworthy that the arrests came on the day of yet another gangland shooting and that the execution of the arrest was made by detectives from the National Bureau Criminal Investigation who should properly be investigating serious organised and drug crime rather than a journalist.
The fact that the Minister for Justice Michael McDowell has the gardaí investigating the media instead of the godfather of crime does not instil confidence."
Fine Gael justice spokesman Jim O'Keefe attempted to raise Mr McCaffrey's arrest in the Dáil this morning but was ruled out of order.
Dean Lyons, a 24-year-old homeless drug addict admitted to the murder of Mary Callinan (61) and Sylvia Shiels (59) in their home at Grangegorman psychiatric hospital in March 1997.
He was charged in July 1997 but in August that year another man, Mark Nash, confessed to the fenzied multiple stabbings.
He was being questioned at the time about the killing of a couple in Roscommon, for which he is serving life imprisonment. He later withdrew his confession to the Grangegorman murders and was not charged.
However Nash's confession contained information about the double murder which had never been made public.
Charges against Mr Lyons were later withdrawn after it became apparent that his confession was unreliable, and the Garda Síochána later issued an unprecedented apology to his family.
Mr Lyons later agreed to assist the murder inquiry but died from a heroin overdose in 200 - a day after being released from prison in England after serving a short sentence.
Senior Counsel George Birmingham was appointed in 2005 to investigate what became known as the Dean Lyons affair. He presented his preliminary report to the Department of Justice last year which was published last September.
However, the Evening Heraldpublished a news report the previous month written by Mr McCaffrey based on leaked information from the confidential report.
Mr Birmingham had found that senior gardaí pursued prosecution against Mr Lyons despite reservations from more junior colleagues. It is also reported to conclude that the DPP was never made aware of concerns about the reliability of Mr Lyons's statement.
Mr McCaffrey was arrested by detectives from the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation when he presented himself for interview by arrangement this morning.