Inquiry Under Section 42 of Garda Síochána Act 2005, As Amended

FIOSRÚCHÁN FAOI ALT 42 D'ACHT AN GHARDA SÍOCHÁNA 2005, ARNA LEASÚ INQUIRY UNDER SECTION 42 OF THE GARDA SÍOCHÁNA ACT 2005, AS AMENDED 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE 1. TERMS OF REFERENCE 4 2. REPORT SECTION 1 6 Response made on the night of the death of Mr. John Kelly by An Garda Síochána. 3. REPORT SECTION 2 30 The conduct and adequacy of the Garda Síochána investigation. 4. REPORT SECTION 3 72 The correctness or otherwise of the information provided by the Garda Síochána to the family of John Kelly in relation to the injuries sustained by him. 5. REPORT SECTION 4 77 Whether or not the information provided by the Garda Síochána to the family of Mr. John Kelly concerning the condition, whereabouts and any forensic examination of his clothes was correct. 6. REPORT SECTION 5 80 The appropriateness or otherwise of the Garda Síochána appointment to the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission supervised inquiry. 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS (CONT'D) PAGE 7. REPORT SECTION 6 86 The appropriateness or otherwise of Garda Síochána communication with members of the Kelly family including at meetings with them. 8. REPORT SECTION 7 109 The content and significance of any testimonies given by witnesses to the death, including civilians who telephoned emergency services. 9. REPORT SECTION 8 111 The response of the Garda Síochána to the emergency telephone calls made shortly before the death of Mr. John Kelly. 10. CONCLUSIONS 112 3 TERMS OF REFERENCE TO ENQUIRE INTO A MATTER OF PUBLIC CONCERN NAMELY, - - Responses made on the night of the death of Mr. John Kelly at Britain Quay, Dublin 2 on 15/16 October 2008 by the Garda Síochána. - The conduct and adequacy of the Garda Síochána investigation conducted thereafter. - The content and significance of information provided by the Garda Síochána to the family of Mr. John Kelly in relation to injuries sustained by the deceased. - The content and significance of information provided by the Garda Síochána to the family of Mr. John Kelly in relation to the condition and whereabouts of the clothes of the deceased and any forensic examination of same. - The appropriateness or otherwise of the appointment made by the Garda Síochána to a subsequent inquiry by the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (GSOC). - The appropriateness or otherwise of garda communication with members of the Kelly family, including at subsequent meetings with them. 4 - The content and significance of any testimonies given by witnesses to the death, including civilians who telephoned emergency services. - The response of the gardaí to the emergency telephone calls made shortly before Mr. John Kelly's death. Statutory instrument number 198 of 2017: 15th May 2017. Garda Síochána Act 2005 (Section 42) (special inquiry relating to the Garda Síochána) (No. 3) Order 2017. Notice published in "Iris Oifigiúil" 19th May 2017. 5 SECTION 1 RESPONSE MADE ON THE NIGHT OF THE DEATH OF MR. JOHN KELLY BY AN GARDA SÍOCHÁNA 1. All calls made to the emergency phone numbers "999" and "112" in the Dublin area on 16th October 2008 seeking assistance from the Garda Síochána were transferred within seconds by the emergency number response operators to a Garda Síochána call-taker at the Command and Control Centre of the Garda Síochána at Harcourt Square. This was in compliance with the procedures specified in the National Emergency Service Operator Work Instruction Manual, 999/112. These transfers were effected by a dedicated special direct line facility and the Eircom PLC operator remained on the line only until she or he heard the Garda Síochána call-taker responding to the caller [1]. Each call was electronically recorded and the operator would also immediately complete a written standard form record of the call known as a 'ticket'. These recordings and tickets were retained at Telecom House, Marlborough Street, Dublin until after the coming into operation of the Communications (Retention of Data) Act 2011. They were then destroyed and cannot be retrieved or recreated [2]. 2. On 16th October 2008 one call seeking such Garda Síochána assistance was made through the Directory Enquiry Service 11811 directly to Pearse Street Garda Station Dublin [3]. A number of calls seeking such assistance were made directly to Irishtown Garda 6 Station [4]. No record, electronic or manual, of the direct call to Pearse Street Garda Station was disclosed to this inquiry. No equipment was available at Irishtown Garda Station in October 2008 for making a direct voice recording of the calls made to that garda station. It was one of the many duties of the garda in charge of the Public Office at Irishtown Garda Station between 10pm and 6am to enter these calls into the Garda Síochána computer aided dispatch (C.A.D.) system by means of an on-screen standard form template [5]. 3. Some only of these direct calls to Irishtown Garda Station were entered into this Garda Síochána C.A.D. system and thereby automatically transmitted to a dispatcher at the Garda Síochána Command and Control Centre at Harcourt Square [6]. Errors in incident type and location were included in those transmissions potentially very serious in the context of a person in distress in deep water. Fortunately these errors did not result in any significant delays or misdirection of garda mobile patrols [7]. The emergency call made directly to Pearse Street Garda Station was mishandled in what the Superintendent in charge [8] accepted and which I find was a most irregular manner and contrary to established Garda Síochána procedures. These matters will be addressed more fully later in this report in considering the several calls for Garda Síochána assistance in their correct time sequence. 4. The first call seeking the assistance of the Garda Síochána in relation to the behaviour of a male at 7 Britain Quay was made, employing the 112 emergency number, at 12.28am on 16th October 2008 [9]. This call was made by a resident in Apartment 16 Portview Apartments, Thorncastle Street, Ringsend, Dublin. These apartments back on to Grand Canal Basin at a confluence of the River Dodder and the River Liffey on the opposite side of this water from Britain Quay. The caller [10] identified herself and informed the Garda Síochána Dublin (South Central) Area call-taker [11] that she could hear a male repeatedly shouting "Hey" on the opposite side of the canal from her apartment and that he seemed to be drunk. A contemporaneous record of this conversation was made by the Garda Síochána I.C.C.S. system and was furnished to this inquiry [12]. 5. Details of this and subsequent calls answered by call-takers at the Garda Command and Control Centre were entered by them into the garda computerised aided dispatch system (C.A.D.) employing a standard form template. This information was then automatically transferred to the screen of one of the garda dispatchers in the same Command and Control room. This dispatcher, observing a priority rating reflecting the incident gravity and urgency, directed over the Garda Síochána communications network, such foot and/or mobile patrols as were available and clear within, or if necessary outside the Dublin (South Central) Area which he or she considered to be sufficient to go directly to a particular location and investigate the incident said to be occurring there [13]. I am satisfied from the evidence received, and 8 as a matter of plain reason and common sense, that it was the duty of whatever garda mobile patrol as was dispatched to an incident to go at once and by the shortest available route to whatever location was specified by the Command and Control dispatcher [14]. I am satisfied from the evidence received that in October 2008, unlike the present, the Garda Command and Control dispatcher had no independent means of ascertaining and verifying the whereabouts of a mobile patrol once dispatched to a particular incident [15]. 6. I find that the second call seeking assistance of the Garda Síochána in relation to the behaviour of a male at Britain Quay, Dublin was made at 12.37am on 16th October 2008 by a resident in Apartment 24 Portview Apartments, Thorncastle Street, Dublin [16]. This resident states that she rang 01-6669600, the number of Irishtown Garda Station, as this was the local garda station and she felt that they would be already in the area or would send a car to check it out. She states that her phone records showed that she made this call at 12.37am on 16th October 2008 [17]. This lady no longer resides in Ireland. 7. She states that she informed the girl (sic) at Irishtown Garda Station who answered her call that from approximately 12.15am onwards she heard a male shouting loudly and intermittently what sounded to her like "Claire", but she could not catch exactly what it was. It was cold and dark and the tide was really high. Initially she could not see anything but she knew that the shouts were coming from either the waste 9 ground at Britain Quay or the water in front of it. The shouting stopped. She went to bed but it started again. She went out on to the balcony outside her bedroom. She thought she saw a shape in the water between the quay steps and the parked (sic) barge. 8. No note or record of this 12.37am telephone call to Irishtown Garda Station appears in the Garda Síochána files provided this inquiry [18]. In particular, no details of this telephone call are to be found in the Garda Síochána C.A.D. system records. The member of the Garda Síochána on duty in the public office at Irishtown Garda Station between 10pm on 15th October 2008 and 6am on 16th October 2008 [19], one of whose several responsibilities it was to answer telephone calls to the garda station by members of the public, had no recall of having received this telephone call [20].

Load more