Michael McDowell: Yet another scandal

Following the scandal of Garda corruption in Donegal and considering Michael McDowell's blaming of Nora Owen's inertia over the McBrearty case, it seems astounding that the Minister has acted in such a cold and aloof manner after a child has died in police custody. The question now hanging in the air is, "Where is the Justice Minister?"

Commenting recently (on Wednesday, 8 June on RTE's News at One) on the Rainbow Government's inertia over Garda misconduct in Donegal while it was in office, Michael McDowell said: "People who were at the cabinet [table] with their feet firmly tucked under it, didn't even know the situation had collapsed in Donegal, weren't insisting on proper management, and weren't preventing miscarriages of justice when it was their duty to do so".

Minister McDowell's own inertia in the face of disquieting evidence arising from the death of a 14-year-old boy in Garda custody in Clonmel is astonishing.

It is hardly credible that after all we have learnt about Garda conduct since the McBrearty affair has come to public notice some years ago and the revelations of the Morris Tribunal, that a Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform would not act urgently and decisively when new evidence of possible Garda misconduct came to his attention. All the more so when, as in this instance, the death of a 14 year old boy in Garda custody was the central fact.

And yet this is precisely what has happened in the Brian Rossiter case.

Michael McDowell was written to on 16 January 2004, with information of the most worrying kind concerning Garda behaviour, involving this time, not the false arrest of a citizen or harassment or hoax finds, but the death of a 14 year old boy in Garda custody (The fact that he technically died some days later after the life support mechanisms were turned off is not relevant). What is relevant is that the boy died after an incident, according to the dead boy's companion, in which the Garda used brutal force.

And for seven-and-a-half months Michael McDowell did nothing and, even then, issued a standard reply, while also denying the dead boy's family the courtesy of sight of the autopsy report relevant to the boy's death.

We are not saying that the boy died as a result of a Garda assault. It may well be that the boy died as a result of an unrelated assault that occurred some days before he came into Garda custody, as the State Pathologist, Dr Marie Cassidy concluded before some possibly very relevant additional medical data became available. However, what we are saying is there was every reason for Michael McDowell to be greatly concerned about the information that had come into his possession, such as to impel him to have an immediate separate inquiry instituted into the affair, perhaps by a senior counsel. It is possible the boy died of an assault that occurred after or while he was being apprehended by gardaí, certainly the evidence of the boy's companion, coupled with the other medical evidence that has become available recently, suggests this is, at least, a possibility. But note, we are not saying this is what happened.

What was/is absolutely not acceptable, given all that we have come to know about Garda conduct, is that the matter would be investigated solely by An Garda Síochána itself. Neither would it have been appropriate for this to be investigated by a thoroughly inadequately resourced and empowered Garda Complaints Board.

The response to these charges may be that a man was charged with manslaughter in connection with Brian Rossiter's death and it would be inappropriate for the Minister to intervene. Nonsense. The very fact that blame was being foisted on someone else for the death should have been, in itself, reason for Michael McDowell to act with even more urgency in appointing an outsider to examine what happened. Instead he resorted to the conventional Ministerial alibi, "The minister has no function in the matter" etc. Precisely the inaction that he has sought to fix on his predecessor-but-one, Nora Owen, in relation to the McBrearty affair.

Even aside from that, the sheer disdain for a family that had suffered the terrible grief of the death of their son/brother, in not bothering to respond immediately to the representations that were made, is outrageous.

The refusal to release the autopsy report and other relevant medical files is also outrageous. The purported excuse for this is that this material relates to a criminal case against a third party. Yes of course, but why should this be a reason for withholding the file? How could the case against this third party or this person's defence be compromised by the release of the files to the family of the dead boy?

No doubt in responding to this affair, we will be told of the "usual" procedures within the Department, whereby representations of the kind made are simply forwarded to the Garda. How, conceivably, could these "usual" procedures ever have been appropriate in a case involving the death of a young boy in Garda custody? How conceivably could these "usual" procedures be appropriate in relation to any representation of a serious nature, given what we have known or should have known about Garda conduct and culture since the Morris Tribunal started its proceedings three years ago?

This is yet another scandal and yet again nothing will happen.

vincent browne