LAST UPDATE | 5 Apr 2023
GARDAÍ HAVE FOUND 26 cases in their records arising out of complaints of sexual abuse in the Irish Defence Forces.
Commissioner Drew Harris has confirmed that gardaí have a specialist operation in place and have begun investigating incidents, adding “that there may be predators out there”.
Confirmation of the garda investigation comes days after the publication of the Independent Review Group into sexual abuse, bullying and harassment in the military.
He encouraged anyone who is a victim of sexual abuse in the Defence Forces to make contact with their local garda station.
Harris said that the investigations were being conducted at divisional level across the country but that they are being coordinated at national level by specialist garda detectives with the National Bureau of Protective Services.
The Commissioner said that gardaí had formal meetings with military leaders about how the investigations would be dealt with.
Harris explained that they have received reports dating back to the 1960s and that gardaí are compiling data and examining their own records.
“We do stand ready, both on a national level and at the divisional level. We have our Protective Service Units, which have experienced qualified investigators.
“And we would encourage individuals who do wish to make a complaint to come forward to any garda division. Their complaint will be dealt with and confidence on before to the Director of Public Prosecutions.
“Well, we were in discussions in terms of military authorities prior to IRG report on listings and this seems on both our parts a prudent action for us to take in terms of being ready to receive complaints of serious sexual assault,” he said.
Harris urged victims to come forward and report incidents to gardaí.
“We have the necessary skills in each of our divisions to deal with such complaints. We want to have a national oversight in terms of progress of those investigations, but also sharing information, we have to take into account that victims may have been victimised, attacked on a number of occasions.
“But we also have to take into account that there may be predators out there and we want to make sure that if individuals are accused of multiple offenses that we gather all the evidence and report that to the DPP so there is a need for national coordination in terms of addressing this issue,” he added.
A statement has been requested from the Irish Defence Forces welcomed the investigation.
“The Defence Forces welcomes this new operation set up by An Garda Síochána and fully supports this initiative. The Defence Forces Military Police Corps stand ready to assist An Garda Síochána if required at any stage,” a spokesperson said.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, Harris said what has been revealed in recent years “suggests there are far more complaints that have yet to be made to an Garda Síochána”.
“I appeal to victims to come forward. There’s more to do, we believe there’s more that we need to investigate, and therefore I make this appeal,” he said.
He said that in the past, members of the Defence Forces who wished to make a complaint may have been told that it lies within the military jurisdiction or outside of this jurisdiction completely.
“We would say to anyone who wish to make a complaint, come forward to us, and we will receive your complaint and investigate it.”
However, he added that there is in issue in respect of what garda jurisdiction might be, but that this is being examined.
“There is legislation dating back to 2004, which did extend jurisdiction in terms of criminal matters. We want to just clarify that precisely to make sure that that can be retrospective and does apply then also to serious sexual offending.
“That’s something that we’re addressing at the moment and indeed, if a legislative amendment is required, then we would seek that as well.”
Asked what protections are in place for potential victims if the subject of their complaint happens to be their superior officer, Harris said gardaí will work with the Defence Forces and deal with people in an “absolutely confidential manner”.
“The victim comes first. We are very much a victim-centred organisation and that is our responsibility in law and that’s our responsibility in terms of treating people properly. At the centre of this, it’s paramount the protection of the victim,” he said.
“We will work with the Defence Forces in respect to this. But obviously, we will deal with people’s complaints confidentially.”
Diane Byrne, a former Defence Forces officer and a member of the Women of Honour, told Morning Ireland that the group was not made aware of the garda investigation prior to its announcement.
“Absolutely no. We have heard nothing. The first we’ve heard about it is the little that we’ve seen in the media this morning,” she said.
She told the programme that questions need to be asked as to what happened to complaints made to gardaí before now.
“This option was always open to members of the Defence Forces, although it was never really overly publicised or overly encouraged,” she said.
We really need to understand what’s going on. This all seems very, very fast and very new.
“Of course, we welcome it for what it seems to be, but we have no understanding of what that is and it’s very, very hard for us to tell anybody that’s coming to us, who has very little trust in everything that’s been going on to date to go into this because we don’t know anything about it.”
Asked if she believed more people would come forward and report to Gardaí, Byrne said she did.
“We’ve had a lot of extra people reaching out even very, very recently, but we need to understand where all these ones that happened in the past went to.
“Are they going to you work with the statutory inquiry on the historical issues. There’s a lot of people out there have suffered this for a very, very long time. None of this was new.
“We’ve been saying it for a long time. Lots of people have. Why now? What’s what’s different now?”
Byrne said from the perspective of the Women of Honour, it has been “more of the same”.
“Again, no communication, no collaboration. We knew nothing about this. This is all before a statutory inquiry is set up. The issue is very straightforward here.”
She said there needs to be a widespread investigation to figure out what happened.
“Who knew what? What did they do? What did they not do? And root them out. Only then when the people – some who may still be in there – had any hand or dealing in this, they need to be removed so that we can then get on with designing and implementing solutions. Anything other than that is just not gonna get get to the answers here.”
Byrne said that there had been no communication with the Women of Honour since the meeting with Tánaiste Micheál Martin last week ahead of the publication of a report into bullying and abuse in the Defence Forces.
She said it was “very, very hard” to have trust in the investigation.
“There’s one chance to fix this issue going forward and what we need is something very different to what’s ever been done before to get some sort of real restorative change in this country.
“The one thing that we’ve never had with our troubled history is a chance to heal and move forward, and unless we can do this in an open and honest and transparent way, where anybody who had any involvement has to account for their actions, we’re not moving forward from this.”
Additional reporting from Jane Moore
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