A GARDA failed yesterday to get a High Court order stopping disciplinary proceedings against him over an incident which led to his acquittal on a charge of having drugs as he tried to get into a concert while off-duty.
Garda Patrick Walsh, who has been in the force for 17 years and works in information technology at headquarters in Dublin, had sought orders restraining the Garda Commissioner proceeding with a board of inquiry into alleged discreditable conduct arising from an incident at the Electric Picnic concert in Stradbally, Co Laois, on September 2nd, 2007.
Garda Walsh was charged with having 6.4 grammes of amphetamine and was acquitted by Judge Gerard Haughton in the District Court on November 26th, 2008.
Yesterday, the president of the High Court, Mr Justice Nicholas Kearns, refused to grant an injunction prohibiting an internal Garda inquiry, as presently constituted, over the matter.
The judge said he would give his reasons later.
It was alleged in the District Court that Garda Walsh was stopped by security men at the concert and refused to submit to a search after saying he was a garda.
It was alleged a struggle ensued between him and a bouncer during which a bag containing the drugs was allegedly thrown and landed in a nearby bin. The bag was then allegedly retrieved by a security man.
Garda Walsh denied the bag belonged to him. When uniformed officers intervened during the incident, he was brought to the concert “drugs tent” where he refused to undergo a search after being directed to do so by a garda sergeant.
The possession charge against him was later dismissed following an application by his lawyer at the end of the prosecution case in the District Court.
The Garda Commissioner, who had directed internal disciplinary proceedings be instituted against him before the District Court case, then ordered those disciplinary proceedings be continued.
It was alleged he breached discipline by refusing to submit to a drug search, improperly using his position as a garda for private advantage and using insulting and abusive language after refusing to be searched.
Another charge of discreditable conduct over alleged drug possession was withdrawn.
Garda Walsh then got leave to bring judicial review proceedings against the Commissioner and the board of inquiry seeking to stop the disciplinary process as presently constituted, claiming unfairness on grounds it was based on a charge which had already been dealt with in the District Court.
Opening the case yesterday, Feichin McDonagh, counsel for Garda Walsh, said the board of inquiry set up by the Commissioner was set up on the basis of facts contradictory and inconsistent with the District Court verdict.
To allow the board to continue regardless of that verdict amounted to unfair procedures and failed to vindicate Garda Walsh’s right to natural justice, counsel said.
Diarmuid McGuinness, for the Commissioner, said Garda disciplinary regulations allow for proceedings to continue where they do not specifically involve an inquiry into the matter in relation to which the applicant had already been acquitted (the possession charge).