Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Anti-Austerity Alliance) | Oireachtas source

There are many disturbing aspects to the O'Higgins report, such as the fact that the documents were not passed over for many months to the commission. We have not heard much comment about that. There was clear bullying and victimisation of Sergeant Maurice McCabe when he exposed poor investigation and wrongdoing. There was clearly a culture within that district, emanating from the top, as otherwise why would low-level gardaí relative to Garda McCabe feel they had the confidence to accuse him, wrongly, of wrongdoing and try to get him into difficulty?

Nobody is held responsible after this report. It concludes that there was a corporate closing of ranks, but that it was not done consciously and there was no question of bad faith. Investigations like this should not be done by people who are part of the legal system; they should be done by outsiders.

The theme I want to take up with the Minister, which I hope she might be concerned about, is one that has not been brought to light from the cases I studied in the commission's report, that is, the issue of violence against women. Surely the Minister must be disturbed by three cases in particular where women were the victims of violence or potential violence and nothing was done about it. We should be screaming from the rooftops about that, because I see some similarities in bad attitudes among these gardaí. I have seen it in my own district as well.

Let us take the Kingscourt bus incident, for example. This was the case of a female bus driver, who, by the way, is not prone to be scared easily and had said herself that she had worked as a bus driver and a taxi driver in some of the toughest areas of Dublin. This woman ended her night hiding in a hedge after what she had experienced, such was her level of fear. The gardaí took no statements. They discouraged any pursuance of the incident by constantly telling her that she had no case, that it was up to her if she really wanted to bother and that there would be a lot of difficulty. The woman ended up being offered a €150 meal voucher as compensation for the terror she had been put through that night. Does the Minister think it is acceptable that anyone - I do not care if it was a probationer - could think that was acceptable? Let us look at that case in particular. In the Byrne-McGinn report, which looked into the case, they said the claim that there was a sexual assault was grossly exaggerated. Actually two sexual assaults took place on that bus that night. One woman leaving the bus was groped and sexually assaulted and in respect of the other woman, what would the Minister call it when men grab a woman by her clothing, she is screaming and is not let off the bus? I would call that a sexual assault as well. We all know it was not taken seriously in any way. The woman who was driving the bus turned down the meal voucher, thankfully, and ended up getting €150 in compensation. What does that tell us about attitudes to the sexual harassment of the women on the bus that night and to violence against women?

In the case of the assault on Mary Lynch, which has been well publicised, we know the assault was eventually downgraded and that Mary Lynch was not told to attend court. I had to laugh when I heard her husband was rung on a couple of occasions. Mary Lynch was ringing the Garda station at the time, but the garda did not see fit to ring the woman who was the actual victim. The commission concluded that there was an agreement that her husband would be the point of contact. It is a bit like something out of the 1930s. The constant get-out clause throughout is that the gardaí were new, they were not being supervised, they were probationers. What does that say about Garda training in Templemore in respect of attitudes to violence against women?

To give the Minister an idea of the savage attack that took place on Mary Lynch in that taxi, the woman was first brought deliberately to a secluded location. She was pulled by the head and told to get out of the car. Lumps were pulled out of her hair. The man had his zip open. He tried to pull her out of the car, kicked her repeatedly in the stomach for a number of minutes, bit her shoulder and verbally abused her. Would that not suggest that this man might just be a danger to women, that he might repeat that pattern again? The gardaí in Cavan-Monaghan do not seem to think so. I do not know whether that is just that area or whether it is a prevalent thing, but the Minister should be asking questions about the attitudes to women among gardaí.

The case gets listed for mention and nothing is said about the judge in the cases, which the Minister should also be concerned about. My reading of it is that the case got disposed of without the person being there, which is a breach of the Criminal Justice Act in that a victim is meant to have the right to give evidence of violence or a threat of violence and the judge did not see fit to question that. The commission concluded it was all very regrettable. There are myriad disturbing features about that case and we know this man went on to abduct a child and to brutally murder another woman. I am not saying every man who attacks a woman might do that, but there is a pattern. Does the Minister not think gardaí should be educated about this area, because they seem to have a very flippant attitude?

I do not have time to deal with it, but I would like to mention the attack that took place on a 17 year old girl. I do not know about the Minister, but if a 17 year old is walking home at night and a man grabs her, covers her mouth and tries to drag her somewhere, I think that is also potentially a sexual assault. It is certainly unlikely to be an attempt to rob a young girl who is unlikely to have very much money. For the investigations to conclude that a sexual motive was unlikely is just ridiculous. That was done by Superintendent Clancy.

I am just trying to bring out aspects that I have not heard being brought out much in the media. This raises a general issue about the confidence woman would have in the police taking attacks on and threats to them very seriously and I would like to hear what the Minister has to say about it.

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