11 hours ago
Gardaí accused in Seanad of ‘concealing facts' from judge in Evan Fitzgerald case
Gardaí involved in the case of
Evan Fitzgerald
, who took his own life in a Carlow shopping centre, were accused of 'concealing' the 'true facts' from a judge when he was deciding whether to grant bail.
Undercover
gardaí
supplied guns and ammunition to Mr Fitzgerald – who was then charged with possession of the firearms.
While awaiting trial on the firearms charges, Mr Fitzgerald (22), from Kiltegan, Co Wicklow, stole another weapon from a neighbour and
fired shots in the shopping centre before turning that gun on himself
.
Using Seanad privilege, Independent Senator Michael McDowell outlined details of Mr Fitzgerald's case as he accused undercover gardaí, who supplied the 22-year-old with seized weapons, of 'entrapment'.
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Raising the issue for the second time in the Seanad he demanded 'an immediate investigation and full accountability from the Commissioner down' over how sworn evidence could be given to a District Court judge 'which was misleading and left him in the dark'.
He said Mr Fitzgerald sought firearms on 'the proton email aspect of the dark web. Apparently Interpol or some other international agency alerted the Garda to this inquiry'.
Gardaí did a deal with him 'in which they persuaded him to take an automatic rifle and a semi-automatic pistol for a price of €2,700″.
When they arranged a meeting 'Mr Fitzgerald came with two childhood friends, and they took delivery of the firearms in one of his friend's cars.
'The car proceeded some distance away to another place, where it was intercepted by members of An Garda Síochána, who smashed the windows, dragged out the occupants and made an arrest.'
The weapons they bought 'had been disabled, were not capable of discharge and were taken from the Garda's own reservoir of seized firearms'.
He said gardaí initially opposed bail when the matter came before the District Court.
'When bail on certain conditions was eventually granted, Judge Desmond Zaidan, who said the three men 'appeared to him to be young and naive', asked: 'When you say the dark web, do you have any idea who was selling them on the dark web?'
'A garda told him in sworn evidence: 'that is an ongoing investigation. At this stage I wouldn't want to ...', and the judge said: 'compromise the trial', and the garda said: 'That is an ongoing investigation on the dark web.''
Mr McDowell said gardaí had informed the court the three wanted the weapons to shoot them in the woods but 'gardaí wanted to deprive them of bail, which meant being imprisoned pending trial'.
Calling for an immediate investigation and 'full accountability', Mr McDowell said the judge was left in the dark as were the three accused who were prohibited from communicating with each other for a whole year.
'In that dark despairing year, Evan Fitzgerald decided to take his own life by shooting himself with a neighbour's shotgun. That is what happened, and I am demanding that there is accountability.'
The former attorney general and minister for justice said 'we cannot tolerate untruths being told to an Irish District Court judge and we certainly cannot allow a situation where the judicial process is deployed on a false basis to deprive people of their liberty and to conceal from members of the judiciary the true facts when they are determining whether someone should be granted bail.'
He said 'we should be very conscious in this House of the nature of the powers we are conferring on An Garda Síochána and the seriousness of any abuse of those powers'.
Mr McDowell was speaking during a debate on the extension of counter-terrorism and anti-crime gang emergency powers under the Offences Against the State Act and the Criminal Justice Act.
