When officers of the State behave corruptly and an innocent citizen and his family suffer serious injury as a consequence, it is only fitting that exemplary compensation should be paid as a mark of official remorse. In the High Court yesterday, Donegal nightclub owner Frank Shortt was granted €500,000 in compensation for having been wrongfully incarcerated for more than two years, a further €1.3 million for financial loss to his various businesses and exemplary damages of €50,000 because of the "outrageous abuse of power" by members of the Garda Síochána.
On the face of it, the award by Mr Justice Finnegan was minimalist and did not adequately reflect the terrible damage done to this family or the public revulsion over the behaviour of Garda members.
Mr Shortt was "set up" by Det Garda Noel McMahon and Supt Kevin Lennon, disgraced policemen who have since left the Garda, but whose names and improper behaviour have become notorious as a result of the investigations by the Morris tribunal. During the trial of Mr Shortt, in 1995, important material was deliberately suppressed by the two policemen and he was found guilty of permitting drugs to be sold in his nightclub. He spent more than two years in jail, from the age of 60, and consistently protested his innocence. Eventually, the courts decided he had been the victim of a miscarriage of justice.
Mr Shortt is now 70 years of age. He suffered greatly, not just through wrongful imprisonment but in his social and business life. He was struck off as an accountant. He experienced depression and his wife and children suffered social exclusion. It was a shattering experience for the whole Shortt family. And yet the cause of this calamity - the corrupt behaviour of two policemen - only attracted exemplary damages of €50,000. Such an award is unlikely to encourage root-and-branch reform within the Garda.
Whatever about the size of the award in the Shortt case - the courts may yet revisit the issue - there is no gainsaying the need to make members of the Garda Síochána accountable for their actions. The sooner Minister for Justice Michael McDowell appoints members of the new Garda Ombudsman Commission to investigate complaints by the public, the better.
At the same time, a culture of human rights and ethical behaviour must be established within the force, as was urged by Human Rights Commission president Maurice Manning in recent days. This will not be a quick or an easy process, given the emergence of mores under which individual members offer primary allegiance to their colleagues rather than to the rule of law and to the society they are supposed to serve.
This has facilitated abuses, including the intimidation and maltreatment of citizens by out-of-control gardaí. It has betrayed the honourable traditions of the Garda and resulted in a diminution of public confidence in the force. It must stop.