This article is from page 3 of the 2009-04-21 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 3 JPG
FORMER Garda Sergeant Ciaran Sheehan’s solicitor, Michael He- garty, outlined for a public meeting in Scariff the series of events which culminated in his client being dis- missed from the force.
The dismissal followed a complaint made by a local man in September 1995 that Mr Sheehan had allegedly
asked that man to withdraw a state- ment he had made regarding an in- cident in Scariff on St Patrick’s Day in 1995.
This complaint was adjudicated upon by the Garda Complaints Tri- bunal in June 1998 which issued a recommendation to the Garda Com- missioner that Sgt Sheehan should either resign or face dismissal.
Sgt Sheehan did not participlate at
this Tribunal on legal grounds. Fol- lowing an unsuccessful High Court application to review the decision, Sgt Sheehan appealed to the Supreme Court, which in February 2009, dis- missed his appeal.
After the first complaint, the Garda authorities directed Sgt Sheehan not to make any contact with the com- plainant. A second complaint was made by the same person in March
1996 against Sgt Sheehan, following which Sgt Sheehan was immediately suspended.
A 10-day garda enquiry took place at Ennis Garda Station between No- vember 1997 and January 1998 into the second complaint. During this, it was established that the man making the complaint had a criminal record for assault, that he had a grudge against Sgt Sheehan and wanted “to
nail him” and that a senior garda had arranged a job interview for the com- plainant with a security firm shortly after he had made his first complaint against Sgt Sheehan.
Commenting on Mr Sheehan’s cur- rent situation, Mr Hegarty said, “He now has no income and no pension after being the member subject to the longest suspension in the history of the force.”