Article: Alone In The Dark

IT WAS going on for 3.30am when Lorraine Browne picked up her fares outside the Roma chipper in Carrickmacross, Co Monaghan. Ms Browne ran, and still runs, a minibus taxi service out of Kingscourt in Co Cavan. About 10 people boarded her mini-bus. The mood was good, but finely balanced, in the early hours of February 25, 2007.

She told everybody that she was going to Kingscourt, which is 13km from Carrickmacross. Among the group on the bus were four men whom she didn’t know. Later, she would estimate that they were in their late 20s, or maybe early 30s.

One of the four was a big lad, another shorter. The third was bald and asleep for most of the journey, and the fourth sat behind the driver.

“The minute I pulled off, the verbal abuse from the biggest lad started,” she told gardaí. “He started verbally abusing the lady passengers that I had on board. Putting women down, saying filthy talk, and talking about their privates. He was trying to start a row with their partners by saying stuff to them. His mates, one of them, the smallest lad, kept laughing and egging him on. The bald lad was asleep in the bus and the last lad was sitting behind me telling them to stop.”

About 6km along the road, Ms Browne pulled up to let a couple disembark. “When the girl was getting off, the biggest lad grabbed her arse. Her boyfriend turned around and said ‘how dare you mate’. The big lad laughed in his face. The couple then left.”

For the remainder of the journey, one of the four kept shouting abuse at the other passengers. At Kingscourt, Ms Browne told the men this was the last stop, and asked the four of them to get off. She still had about six passengers aboard, whom she knew, and often dropped to their homes. The men refused to get off. One of them kept shouting that he wanted to be brought to Ardee in Co Louth, about 15km away. The abuse continued for up to half an hour.

Presently, the other passengers began to disembark. “When the passengers were getting off, the biggest lad groped another girl.” By then, there was just one other woman left on the bus.

Ms Browne’s statement went on: “At this stage I was terrified so I told them I wasn’t taking them anywhere but I’d ring them another taxi. I then got off the bus and walked to the middle of the road so they couldn’t hear me and rang Bailieborough Garda Station.

“The minute I got off the phone I heard the girl on the bus screaming. I ran around to the side door and saw the big lad had a grip of the girl, holding her by her clothes at the front. She then broke free of him and ran up the town screaming. The girl kept running away. I didn’t manage to catch up with her. I then turned and went back towards the bus.

“They were all on the bus still shouting very loud. I then saw the big, rowdy fella step off the bus shouting ‘where the fuck was she gone’. At this stage, I turned and ran towards Kingscourt Garda Station and hid at the corner of the road so that I could still see them. They all got off the bus and walked up towards where I was, so I ran further up towards the Garda station. I then heard the voices were getting faded so I walked back down towards the corner and saw that they were going back towards the bus still looking for me.”

Kingscourt Garda station was closed at that hour of the morning. She could now see the men from up the street. They hung around the bus, and then drifted over towards the Europa chipper.

“A fare that I was to pick up in Bailieborough started ringing me at this stage and knew I was in trouble, in a distressed stage. They then got another taxi and when they got to Kingscourt rang me to see where I was and picked me up. They then brought me down to the bus and the gardaí landed at the same time.”

The men had left by that stage. Ms Browne felt thoroughly shaken. She gave a statement to the gardaí concluding with an observation: “I was working with CIE as a bus driver, working on route 77 which is the worst one in Dublin, which is the Tallaght one, for five years. Previous to this I was a taxi driver around Dublin for four to five years. This was the worst I have ever encountered in all my years driving.”

THE investigating garda was a probationary officer. After graduating from Templemore, gardaí serve a probationary period of two years to determine whether they are suitable for full member status.

He took a statement from Ms Browne and would have been expected thereafter to investigate the whole matter and prepare a file with a view to sending it on to the DPP.

A report compiled later suggested that charges could have included public order offences, sexual assault, false imprisonment, and assault.

No investigation file was created. Nobody was formally interviewed. No statements from the investigating garda was included. Effectively, nothing in the way of investigating a crime under standard procedure was undertaken. In the subsequent investigation into the handling of the case, the garda in question stated that he had traced one of the suspects to a location in Dundalk.

The garda travelled to the town with a view to taking a cautioned statement from this man. On making contact, the suspect asked the garda for Ms Browne’s details in order that he might apologise to her. The garda refused to pass on the details. “He then asked me if I would ask the lady if he could compensate her for any damage or loss of fares she had incurred and give her a meal voucher also and for her to let the matter go,” the garda reported.

According to the garda, he passed on this offer to Ms Browne, but she said it was a serious matter and she didn’t want the meal voucher, or to meet the man who had terrorised her. Later, the garda says, she agreed to take a written apology and her losses in the fares, which amounted to €150. The officer said that she called to Bailieborough station and picked up an envelope

“After receiving this, she made a statement of withdrawal and I later updated the Pulse system to this effect,” the garda reported.

It is highly unusual for a member of the force to take a statement of withdrawal from a witness or victim, particularly when matters such as alleged sexual assault are at issue. Typically, if a woman wanted to withdraw a statement in these circumstances, it would have to wait until a court appearance. For a probationary garda to do so is unheard of.

The Irish Examiner understands that the updated Pulse entry indicated that the matter had been “resolved amicably” by the parties.

Ms Browne remembers things differently. Last week, she said she accepted the money offered because it was indicated to her that there was little or no chance of a prosecution being pursued.

“He said that nothing would come of the case,” she said. “I wanted to go the whole way with it. In my eyes it was very serious, but he was so determined to tell me that it wasn’t going to go anywhere. I was very taken aback.”

Ms Browne says that she hadn’t been in contact with the woman who was assaulted on the night in question, but she believes she also would have wanted a prosecution.

“That girl was petrified. They kicked her in the stomach. There was just the two of us there in the end, and these were big men. It was four or five in the morning and there was nobody about.”

She said she wasn’t clear about what happened afterwards, but the Irish Examiner understands she did make a complaint about the matter to the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission. The subsequent GSOC investigation was one of two probes into the case. According to sources, GSOC appointed a serving superintendent to investigate. This is a system that has been criticised by former garda John Wilson, among others, as it ultimately involves gardaí investigating gardaí, albeit under the aegis of GSOC.

THE GSOC investigation came to naught. One of the issues encountered by the investigating officers was a failure to gain co-operation from interested parties. The other investigation was conducted by Assistant Commissioner Derek Byrne, on foot of a complaint by Sergeant Maurice McCabe, the man who has come to be known as the Garda whistleblower.

Sgt McCabe, who was based in Bailieborough, was familiar with the details, and was understood to be shocked at what unfolded. His complaint was examined by Assistant Commissioner Byrne, who had access to the file, and authority to interview all parties involved. He ruled that the complaint of malpractice was not upheld.

“Disciplinary investigation complete — no breach of discipline uncovered,” he reported.

The case was one of a number contained in a dossier furnished by Sgt McCabe to Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin in February. Mr Martin in turn handed over the dossier to Taoiseach Enda Kenny and on February 26 Justice Minister Alan Shatter addressed the dossier in an extensive Dáil speech. He pointed out that all the cases had been investigated by the gardaí, and some by GSOC as well.

“While GSOC dealt with a small number of relevant complaints which had been made to it, it does not appear to have felt it necessary to take any further action.”

Two days later, this version was disputed on RTÉ’s Today with Seán O’Rourke programme by former GSOC commissioner Conor Brady.

“I differ from the minister on one point,” Mr Brady said. “What he said was GSOC didn’t find it necessary to take any further action. I don’t think that’s telling the full story. It’s more accurate to say GSOC didn’t find it possible to take any further action. While witnesses were quite willing to tell them [GSOC investigators] what happened, when it came to making statements, they weren’t going to do that.”

So the matter was investigated twice. Once by an assistant commissioner who found little wrong, and a second time by GSOC, which efforts ran into the sand. The case is now among those under review by the Government- appointed barrister, Seán Guerin, who is expected to report in the next week or so.

The probationary guard at the centre of the affair had his probationary period extended, although he had also been out of work for a prolonged period during his probation, as a result of a road traffic accident. He is now based in the north-east.

In his speech of February 26, Mr Shatter referenced the fact that the cases complained about by Sgt McCabe had all been investigated as per procedure.

“Of course, I understand that Sgt McCabe did not accept the outcome of these investigations, and that is his right. But I am sure the House will appreciate that there is no mechanism that can guarantee all complainants will be at all times fully satisfied with the outcome of all investigations. What is important is that there are procedures in place to deal with allegations.”

The effectiveness of those procedures, and whether they are appropriate in the running of a modern police force, must surely be a matter of debate by now.

By Michael Clifford