McDowell's action on Rossiter - Too little and very late

The capitulation of Michael McDowell on an inquiry into the death of Brian Rossiter is abject. His claim that he knew nothing about the case until recently, extraordinary. His caution about the nature of the inquiry, worrying.

Michael McDowell acknowledges he was aware from media reports of the death of Brian Rossiter, then aged 14, in September 2002, having been found in a coma in a Garda cell in Clonmel. The question arises, why did he not institute an immediate inquiry then? Was the death of a boy, for all intents and purposes, in Garda custody, not alarming in itself, even ahead of any evidence of what may have happened in the course of the boy's arrest and detention (he was found in a coma in Garda custody and was kept alive for three days on a life support machine)?

The claim he was unaware of correspondence between his office, not just his Department but his personal office, and Cian O Carroll, solicitor of the Rossiter parents is amazing. Dismissive letters being issued in his name and then a claim that he had no function in the matter, all sent not by an anonymous official but by his own private secretary! One of these letters, that of May 2004, stated he had requested a Garda report on the case. Did he or didn't he? If he did then he could not have been unaware of the case. If he didn't why was his private secretary saying he did?

But he must have been fully aware of all this from several weeks back when Village first published details of the case and raised questions. Then when some of the other media followed up on the case, notably Philip Boucher Hayes of RTE's Five Seven Live, did he not think then he should acquaint himself with what was involved?

On 10 June he issued a statement saying he could not comment until he had received a Garda report on the case. This was even though he had got two Garda reports on the case in 2004. Did he not realise then there was something amiss?

It took him nearly three further weeks to get to grips with the case, this was two days after we had submitted questions to him personally about the matter (perhaps there is no connection and this is a mere coincidence).

The scale of negligence in the case far exceeds any negligence Nora Owen was guilty of in her responses to initial representations concerning the McBrearty affair in 1997 when she was Minister for Justice.

The engagement of Hugh Hartnett SC to enquire into the affair is welcome, even at this very late stage, but the terms of reference this barrister has been given are disappointing. No explicit direction, for instance, to find out how it was the Gardaí made no effort themselves over the last three years to investigate what had gone on in the Garda station on the night in question. Nor was either of two witnesses, known to gardaí as having made very serious allegations concerning what had transpired, ever interviewed about the matter.

It may well emerge that Brian Rossiter died as a result of injuries he received before he went into Garda custody but there is reason to be concerned this is not so or at least not the whole story. There is evidence of violence on the part of gardaí towards Brian Rossiter and his friend Anthony O'Sullivan on the night. There is also evidence of extraordinary indifference on the part of Garda authorities about the death. All this is the wake of the scandalous revelations of Garda conduct in Donegal. Were no lessons being learnt by the Garda authorities, the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform and by the Minister when day after day revelations of Garda corruption, misconduct and gross negligence were tumbling from the Morris Tribunal?

Hugh Hartnett SC has his work cut out for him. The likelihood is he will receive at best grudging cooperation from gardaí involved, if not outright obstruction. He will have no powers to compel evidence, no powers to compel documents. The alibi of not wishing to prejudice the trial of the man accused in connection with an assault on Brian Rossiter that took place two days before he was arrested is likely to be deployed, as it was with us when we submitted questions.

But this case will not go away.

Vincent Browne