Cairán Boylan, Prime Time investigates

[He3]

This is dynamite.

Turn it on.


http://www.rte.ie/news/2009/0302/pri...00364,null,230

[Dasayev]

This is dynamite.

Turn it on.


RTÉ.ie Media Player: Prime Time Investigates 2 March 2009

It's not just the banks that need a good clearing out.

[thecretinhop]

Yes, surprised this has got no coverage

[He3]

Yes, surprised this has got no coverage

There was some coverage when the case against him was dropped in unusual circumstances, but this programme takes the story to a whole new level.

Follow on coverage would need to be very carefully crafted, as that programme certainly was. A credit to all who appeared in it and those behind the scenes.

That was public service broadcasting at its finest.

[toxic avenger]

I've been covering it here since last August...

http://www.politics.ie/justice/34150...sion-case.html

[He3]

I've been covering it here since last August...

http://www.politics.ie/justice/34150...sion-case.html

And you deserve great thanks for doing so.

[perprojustice]

This has been going on for some time now. It really shows what is happening. Where is the Ombudsman commission now that this has been resurrected. Serious stuff.

[He3]

Pat Rabbitte, Labour Party spokesman on Justice Equality and Law Reform, said the most controversial case facing the new chairman was the case of Kieran Boylan, his relations with members of the Garda Síochána and the related question of why a nolle prosequi was entered by the DPP over charges of possession of €1.7 million worth of cocaine and heroin

"Incredibly, the charges related to this seizure were struck out and only re-entered after members of this House raised the issue," Mr Rabbitte said. "The only reasonable inference is that Boylan was saved from prison by the intervention of corrupt gardaí or he was protected because he is a Garda informant."

"The findings of the GSOC in this case will be a benchmark against which that body will be judged by law abiding citizens for the future," Mr Rabbitte said.

Ministers acting like 'provincial dictators' - The Irish Times - Thu, Mar 05, 2009

[He3]

That same report on the Times site has an interesting line from the Minister for Justice, Dermot Ahern:

Commenting on high-profile cases referred to GSOC that were raised by the Opposition, he said these should be left to the independent commission to be independently examined.

The GSOC deals with conduct of Guards. So the question arising from the Minister's comment is: was it a member of the Garda Siochana who had the decision making power to drop the case?

[indopendant]

The most controversial case on the desk of the new Chairman of the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission is the case of international drugs trafficker Kieran Boylan, his relations with members of the Garda Síochána and the related question of why a nolle prosequi was entered by the DPP in the matter of Boylan having been caught in possession of a €1.7billion Euro cache of cocaine and heroin.

Boylan had already been convicted and imprisoned in the UK and in Ireland (albeit for a surprisingly short sentence) for serious drug offences. He is a major importer of drugs into this country. While on bail he was caught red-handed in Ardee, in the constituency of the present Minister for Justice, with cocaine and heroin valued at 1.7 billion Euros. Incredibly, the charges related to this seizure were struck out and only re-entered after members of this House raised the issue. However, that was not the only amazing development.

On July 31, 2008, the last day of the Courts session before the summer recess, although not listed for mention and without notice, a nolle prosequi was entered on behalf of the DPP. Questioned by the Judge, Senior Counsel for the DPP stated only that “it is a matter for very, very careful consideration at a high level”.

Drugs have ravaged some of our communities, destroyed young lives, caused the murder of innocent civilians and caused a spate of gangland killings still underway. How could the prospects of putting a serious drugs criminal behind bars be undermined by a decision at a very “high level”?

The only reasonable inference is that Boylan was saved from prison by the intervention of corrupt Gardaí or he was protected because he is a Garda informant. Mr Justice Morris dealt with this issue of informants after the Donegal nightmare. The key requirement of the new informant system that he recommended would have required that all informants would be registered compulsorily and that a full assessment of the suitability of the informant would be undertaken by crime and security branch, there would be provision for oversight and periodic independent audits of the operation of the informant handling procedure and so on.

That could not have happened in this case and it really raises questions about whether such a critical recommendation of Morris has been properly implemented.

Since the DPP has announced that in certain circumstances he may be willing to provide public information in certain cases where he declined to prosecute, there appears to be compelling reasons why he should explain his decision in the Boylan case. As I understood the “Prime Time” programme, the inference is that Boylan is not a registered informant but that he has a relationship with individual Gardaí and that because of this, the criminal prosecution system moved to protect him.

I don’t rule out that there may be an explanation but most law abiding citizens will have very great difficulty envisaging what greater good could possibly justify the surreptitious entry of a nolle prosequi in the circumstances described. The findings of the GSOC in this case will be a benchmark against which that body will be judged by law abiding citizens for the future. If there is an explanation why a man importing poison and death should be exempt from the criminal justice system, we should be told what it is. Meanwhile the DPP should reconsider his decision to decline comment on this very serious case.