Latest news with #GardaPulse
Irish Daily Mirror
17 hours ago
- Irish Daily Mirror
Nearly 19,500 cases of domestic abuse reported to gardai so far this year
Nearly 19,500 domestic abuse incidents have been reported to gardai so far this year, shocking new figures have revealed. Of these, one-third of the incidents were reported in Dublin. However, Justice Minister Jim O'Callaghan also warned that this is not the full picture of domestic and gender-based violence incidents and gardai will provide more comprehensive data soon. Labour's Marie Sherlock said gardai must ensure there are enough supports in place to support people who have been brave enough to contact them in the first instance. She asked Justice Minister Jim O'Callaghan to confirm the number of reported domestic and sexual-based violence incidents so far this year in each garda district. The data provided included cases that had been logged on the Garda Pulse system as Breach of a Barring Order and Breach of an Emergency Barring Order'. It also included any incident type that was recorded as having a 'domestic abuse' motive. Between the start of the year and May 27, 19,417 cases were reported. Of those, 6,267 incidents were reported in the six Dublin Garda districts (33%). The largest number of reports was in the Northern district of the Dublin Metropolitan Region, where 1,552 people reported domestic abuse. And 1,329 incidents were reported in the Louth/Cavan/Monaghan area, 1,283 in Wexford/Wicklow, and 1,196 in Kildare/Carlow. The lowest number of reports was in Sligo/Leitrim, where there were still 335 reports. Minister O'Callaghan warned Ms Sherlock this was not the 'full breadth of incidents that could be regarded as domestic and sexual based violence'. He said: 'An Garda Siochana and my Department are continuing to work hard to strengthen trust and confidence in the system, so that victims will feel confident to report what has happened to them and get justice. 'The nationwide rollout of Divisional Protective Service Units has ensured that when victims of crimes such as domestic abuse and sexual violence present to gardai, they are met with a consistently high standard of specialist assistance. 'This is not reflective of the full breadth of incidents that could be regarded as domestic and sexual based violence.' Ms Sherlock told the Irish Sunday Mirror that gardai must ensure there is enough support in place for victims and survivors of domestic abuse. She said: 'When you look at certain parts of Dublin, there's certainly a frightening level being reported. 'It requires a huge amount of very sensitive and delicate policing because you're dealing with a complicated set of factors.'
BreakingNews.ie
3 days ago
- Business
- BreakingNews.ie
Jury told to find Garda not guilty on five of 22 allegations related to motoring prosecutions
A jury in the trial of a Limerick Garda accused of 'sorting out' motoring offences for drivers were on Thursday directed by the trial judge to find him not guilty of some of the charges. Tom Flavin, (51), Rathkeale Garda Station, Co Limerick, should be acquitted of all of the charges as there is no real evidence against him, his barrister, senior counsel, Mark Nicholas, said in his closing speech to the jury. Advertisement Mr Flavin went on trial before Limerick Circuit Criminal Court on May 27th accused of 22 counts of attempting to pervert the course of justice. Today, senior prosecuting counsel, Fiona Murphy, told the jury they were to find Mr Flavin not guilty of five of the charges and that they would consider verdicts on the 17 remaining counts. Mr Flavin, who denies all the charges, is accused of attempting to pervert the course of justice by entering false motor insurance details on the Garda Pulse records computer system, in an attempt to frustrate potential prosecutions against persons for driving without insurance. The drivers involved were stopped at routine Garda checkpoints around the country and asked by the garda present to produce their insurance and licence details at a nominated Garda station within 10 days of the traffic stop. Advertisement All of the drivers asked to do this nominated Rathkeale Garda Station. Later, when the investigating garda in each of the stops carried out follow-up checks of Pulse, they were satisfied that details entered into the system indicated that the driver in each case was insured. However, the court heard the drivers were not insured, and some were even prosecuted in court afterwards after pleading guilty to driving without insurance at the time they were stopped. In his closing speech to the jury, Mr Nicholas SC, instructed by solicitor Dan O'Gorman, described Mr Flavin as an exemplary garda who had served with dedication in Croom and Rathkeale, Co Limerick, for many years. Urging the jury to acquit Mr Flavin and not fall into the trap of speculation, Mr Nicholas added there was radically insufficient evidence to support a conviction. Advertisement 'He served his community without blemish and without any disciplinary blots - you know that from the evidence. When other Gardai came to give evidence, his superiors, they spoke of him very fondly and well - It wasn't far off gushing, and they spoke with knowledge,' Mr Nicholas told the jury. The defence barrister spoke of the 'unique challenges' Gardai face in Rathkeale as opposed to other jurisdictions. 'People who live down here know it has an enormous population, transient, in and out at various times of the year. One policeman said (the population) quadruples and with that comes its own set of problems and own sets of vehicles - UK car registrations, UK insurance, some not insured, some not being entirely truthful.' 'We know that a certain number of times that people who were pulled up and stopped and asked for their documentation, produced bogus insurance certificates.' Advertisement Mr Nicholas said the charge of attempting to pervert the course of justice is an extraordinarily serious allegation to make against a serving Garda. 'That he (Mr Flavin) must have deliberately, knowing the (insurance) certificate to be false, inputted it into the system with the intention that it would frustrate a prosecution. There has been nothing close to this level of proof in this case whatsoever,' added Mr Nicholas. The court heard evidence of persons providing documents at Rathkeale Garda station, however it was unclear who exactly produced what at the Garda station, and what exactly was produced. Fiona Murphy SC, prosecuting, said all of the relevant data entries onto Pulse 'were entered under the ID of Thomas Flavin'. Advertisement Ms Murphy told the jury that a statute of limitation of 'six months' generally applied in respect of prosecuting offences of driving without insurance. 'It is the prosecution's case that Tom Flavin knew they (the motorists involved) were not covered (by insurance) and that he entered the details onto PULSE to ensure they (appeared) covered,' Ms Murphy told the jury. Ireland Priest calls for end to violent feud in Limerick a... Read More 'Mr Flavin knew what he was doing, and he did so to ensure those persons were insured (on Pulse) when they were not, in order to ensure there was no prosecution,' Ms Murphy alleged. The prosecuting barrister told the jury that Tom Flavin enjoyed the presumption of innocence and that the burden of proof 'beyond a reasonable doubt' was all on the prosecution while Mr Flavin 'has nothing to prove'. Ms Murphy told the jury the prosecution's case was 'a circumstantial case, there is no direct evidence, instead the prosecution relies on indirect evidence'. It is anticipated that the jury will retire to consider its verdicts on each of the 17 counts on Friday.
Irish Daily Mirror
23-04-2025
- Irish Daily Mirror
Inside the web of lies & sex fantasies in the murder trial that shocked Ireland
It was the murder trial that gripped the nation - as the sordid sex fantasies of Graham Dwyer were laid bare across the front pages for six weeks. He was the rich architect from Foxrock, a seemingly normal young father who went about his nine to five - but who hid a double life of affairs, BDSM and fantasised of knife play and murder. His seedy, disgusting text messages to innocent childcare worker Elaine O'Hara, 36 - messages he thought no one would ever see - made this a trial like no other. Ten years ago last month, Dwyer was convicted and jailed for life for a murder that he once believed he had easily gotten away with. The prosecution successfully argued that Dwyer killed Elaine O'Hara in the Dublin mountains in August 2012 for his own sexual gratification - after a secret affair lasting more than a year. The investigation into Dwyer began after Elaine's badly decomposed remains, which were ultimately identified by dental records, were found by a dog walker on wooded land near Killakee in September 2013. Investigators had initially believed she may have died by her own hand in a personal tragedy - but after a chance discovery just three days' prior, officers found handcuffs, restraints and other unusual items in the Vartry Reservoir near Roundwood in Co Wicklow. Subsequent searches uncovered two Nokia mobile phones - phones that would ultimately contain hundreds of revealing messages between a mysterious 083 number and Elaine that sealed his fate. The messages revealed that Elaine was in contact with someone who had fantasies and desires of stabbing during sex. A text between her and the 083 number on May 24, 2011 talked about stabbing a sheep and wanting 'to do a woman next'. Investigators then went about trying to identify the anonymous texter who was messaging Elaine - with his obsession with model aircraft ultimately being the key. A text from the 083 number on June 13, 2011 referenced coming fifth in a flying competition - a seemingly innocent message that finally pointed detectives in the direction of Dwyer. Gardaí uncovered that a man named Graham Dwyer had come fifth in the East Coast Scale Championships. Detective Sergeant Peter Woods, a central figure in the investigation, then entered Dwyer's name into the Garda Pulse system and found a man of that name, with an address in Foxrock, had once lodged a complaint about a stolen bike from his office at A&D Wejchert Architects on Baggot St. Investigators were later able to establish from those that knew Elaine that she had been in a troubling relationship with an architect - and found reference to a 'Graham's number' in her laptop. On October 17, 2013, Detective Sergeant Peter Woods ultimately knocked on the door of Dwyer's Kerrymount Close home just after 7am - and informed the startled man that he was being arrested on suspicion of murder. Detective Sergeant Woods was prepared for all eventualities but chose the soft approach, giving Dwyer time to get dressed and be brought to the Garda Station, where the brazen murderer would go on to try and fool officers who had spent weeks preparing for the very important interviews. Acting unfazed and innocent, Dwyer tried to babble his way through the interviews before the evidence of his relationship with Elaine, which he initially denied, was laid out in front of him over five interviews. Dwyer ultimately conceded to detectives that he was in a relationship and disclosed his interest in BDSM but insisted he would not cut anybody. This flew in the face of later evidence of video footage secured by detectives which showed Dwyer cutting Elaine during sex. Detectives had established that Dwyer and Elaine initially had a BDSM, or bondage, relationship previously in 2006 - but the school assistant broke it off in 2008 because she was afraid of him and did not want the architect to cut her any more. However, Dwyer - who started fantasising about stabbing women when he was a teenager - rekindled the relationship in 2011 and began to formulate a plan to kill her. He then spent months trying to persuade Elaine - who had mental health problems and was often suicidal - that he could end her problems by killing her. He sent her hundreds of texts in which he spoke of his desire to cut, rape and kill women - including her. And then, when she told him she didn't want to die, he fooled her into meeting him close to her mother Eileen's grave at Shanganagh, south Dublin at 6pm on August 22, 2012 - hours after she left a mental hospital. He then got her to leave her car there and walked towards the nearby shore - so it would appear to Gardaí investigating her disappearance that she had taken her own life. He then drove her to Killakee Wood, where it is believed he stabbed her as he raped her, before watching her die. A massive Garda probe saw specialist officers retrieve hundreds of texts from the two secret phones Dwyer and Elaine had used to contact each other - in which he had spoken of his plan to kill her. In one text, he told Elaine: "I'm a sadist. I enjoy others' pain. You should help me inflict pain on you and help me with my fantasies." Another text sent by Dwyer to Elaine in June 2011 read: "I want to stick my knife in flesh while sexually aroused... blood turns me on and I'd like to stab a girl to death.' But it was not just texts - he also wrote two pieces of fiction that shocked the nation. The country was horrified when details of a fantasy he wrote - called Jenny's First Rape - were read to the jury. In that fantasy, he told how he kidnaps a woman in a bookshop in Newcastle - and subjects her to a horrific ordeal in his hotel room. But that was nothing compared to his fantasy about killing a real-life woman - American Darci Day. Ms Day gave evidence in the trial - and she revealed that she had met Dwyer online when she was obsessed with thoughts of suicide. The court heard he discussed killing her - and even said he wanted to slit her throat while they were having sex. The court also heard that he wrote a sickening fantasy - called 'Killing Darci' - in which he outlined in sick detail his desire to murder and mutilate Ms Day, 29, who lives in Maine on the east coast of the United States. In the document, he wrote: "Months had gone by and soon the day would finally arrive. From the first email I knew this one was special. I had always fantasised about killing ever since I was a teenager and I got hard every time I had a knife in my hand, wielding the power knowing that I could decide who lived and died, Just like my hero. God. "Bondage, rape, slashing and stabbing soon became my hobby and acquiring two fine subs over the years and having role play with others." The jury convicted then 42-year-old Dwyer unanimously of Elaine's murder on March 27, 2015 - after seven hours and 33 minutes of deliberating. In his Garda interview, Dwyer was told by the experienced investigator - Detective Sergeant Woods - that he thought he had 'done the perfect crime'. In the end, it was Dwyer's own words that secured his prosecution - as he caught himself in a web of lies. If you have been affected by the contents of this article, support is available from the organisations below: Women's Aid: 1800 341 900. helpline@ Samaritans: 116 123. jo@
