This morning’s Irish Sun
On Friday, Gary Meneely reported in The Irish Sun that the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (GSOC) is investigating allegations that a Munster-based garda sexually assaulted an 11-year-old girl.
Mr Meneely reported that the garda, against whom the allegations have been made, “is based in a busy station and involved in some of Ireland’s most serious crime cases”.
Further to this, Mr Meneely reports today:
“…we [The Irish Sun] have learned the gardaí failed to contact the appropriate child protection agencies as rules of conduct dictate.
“It is understood that concerns — that the young girl had been abused by a senior officer — were raised to gardaí around three years ago. But it was only when a separate complaint was made to the Garda Ombudsman that GSOC referred the concerns to the relevant children protection agencies.
“…Gardaí have acknowledged that on this occasion a referral to the HSE Children and Family services was not made. This was is in contravention of the responsibility for reporting in accordance with the Children First Guidance document — the national guidelines for the protection and welfare of children in Ireland.
The District Officer failed to retain in writing a record of the decision and the justification for not initially reporting the alleged child protection issues in compliance with the HQ directive.
Garda quizzed over sex attack on 11-year-old girl (The Irish Sun, December 9)