LAST UPDATE | 2 Feb 2022
A GARDA WHO assisted in the return of Baiba Saulite’s children to Ireland when they were abducted has described fearing for the safety of himself and his family after she was shot dead.
Ms Saulite, a mother-of-two originally from Latvia, died after being shot three times by a lone gunman outside her home in Swords, Co Dublin, on 19 November 2006.
The DPP later decided against charging anyone in relation to the murder.
The Disclosures Tribunal is currently investigating complaints made by retired Sergeant William Hughes that he was targeted and discredited within the force after he raised concerns about the Saulite case.
Garda management have denied Hughes’s allegations.
Hughes has said there was a “systems failure” which meant the various related crimes, including threats to Ms Saulite and her solicitor, an attack on her solicitor’s home and the abduction of the children were not properly correlated.
The tribunal has heard that Hughes had carried out “extensive investigations between 2004 and 2006″ into the abduction of Ms Saulite’s children from the State. The children were located and Ms Saulite travelled to Lebanon to collect them and bring them back to Ireland.
A man, who is being referred to during the tribunal as Mr A, later plead guilty to the abduction of the children.
Giving evidence to the tribunal today, Hughes spoke about an article published in The Sun newspaper in the days after Ms Saulite’s murder which claimed that there was “a hit out to get the garda that reunited Baiba Saulite with her children”.
Hughes said he raised the article with his garda superiors and described it as “dangerously menacing”, adding that he was not the source of the article.
Hughes said he told them that if the contents of the article were “in any way accurate” he wanted a risk assessment as to the safety of himself and his family.
He told the tribunal that he did not put in a formal request for personal surveillance but that a superintendent visited him at his home to offer crime prevention advice and that he was satisfied with the advice he received.
Hughes also told the tribunal about concerns he had about a press release sent by the Garda Press Office on 22 November 2006, a number of days after Ms Saulite’s murder.
The press release sought to clarify media reporting of the case, which was significant at the time.
The statement said that at no time prior to Ms Saulite’s murder was her solicitor provided with full-time personal garda protection but that he was provided with extensive crime prevention advice such as enhancements he could make to his home.
The statement said that Ms Saulite was provided with similar advice regarding her property and personal safety.
Asked about that press release today, Hughes said he has since “discovered that she wasn’t actually given that advice”.
Hughes told the tribunal that “the press release does not reflect that she was making consistent concerns for her safety before her death”.
He added that Ms Saulite had expressed concerns for her safety numerous times in the preceding years.
Victim impact statement
Ahead of sentencing of Mr A for the abduction of the children, Ms Saulite met with Hughes in the presence of Garda Declan Nyhan at Swords Garda Station on 14 November 2006 to prepare a victim impact statement ahead of his sentencing.
She handed Hughes a handwritten twelve-page draft of a victim impact report for the sentencing hearing, the tribunal heard.
Ms Saulite was to finalise the victim impact statement on another occasion but she was killed on 19 November.
The tribunal was told that this draft statement outlined a history of abuse perpetrated against Ms Saulite and included near the end of the draft that she was “very scared for my life”.
Speaking at the tribunal yesterday about this interaction with Ms Saulite, Hughes said that she was not making formal complaint about Mr. A, who was in jail at the time.
Speaking today about that draft, Hughes said there was part of the document which he “hadn’t read” initially. He said he later brought the whole document to the attention of investigating gardaí after the murder.
Asked today did if he felt the document may be “troublesome for yourself” because he had not read all of it, Hughes said he spoke to lead investigating garda Detective Inspector Walter O’Sullivan who he said had put his mind at ease because there was nothing of particular significance in it.
The Disclosures Tribunal continues this afternoon and hearings relating to Hughes’s complaints are expected to last for several weeks.
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