A Garda has broken his silence over a seven-year long probe led by the Garda National Bureau of Criminal Investigation (GNBCI) that failed to convince a jury he had done wrong.
Speaking after the jury in his eight-day trial returned “not guilty” verdicts last Friday, vindicated Garda Tom Flavin, Rathkeale Garda Station, said: “The last seven years have been a nightmare for me and my family.”
Gda Flavin had denied 22 allegations that he had attempted to pervert the course of justice by trying to frustrate criminal prosecutions against individuals, including for driving without insurance.
Senior counsel Fiona Murphy, prosecuting in Gda Flavin’s trial alleged in court that the evidence would show he had “sorted out” uninsured drivers by deliberately inputting insurance details into the Garda Pulse computer records system to try to frustrate the potential prosecutions.
The jury unanimously disagreed and dismissed the allegations which had flowed from an expensive and top-level GNBC investigation probe that began in 2018.
Garda Flavin and his solicitor Dan O’Gorman, have asked why Gda Flavin was brought to trial, when, as his trial heard, there was “no direct evidence” against him, as it was put by Ms Murphy in court.
In a statement provided by Mr O’Gorman following the verdicts, Gda Flavin said: “My elderly unwell parents attended during most of the trial and to witness them in such anxiety and obvious distress will haunt me for a long time.”
Garda Flavin said he wished to thank his colleagues as well as members of the Garda Representative Association (GRA) “for all their support”.
“I love and respect my job but I wish that certain quarters would investigate crime in places where crime actually occurs.”
“The whole case asks serious questions of standards and leadership at the upper levels of the Garda force.”
Near the end of the trial, the jury were directed by trial judge, Colin Daly, to find Gda Flavin not guilty on five of the 22 charges and to deliberate on the remaining 17 counts on the indictment. It took the jury just over three hours to reach unanimous acquittals.
In a sharp rebuke of the GNBCI probe, Dan O’Gorman stated: “Sometime before October 2018 the most equipped and resourced branch of An Garda Síochána, the GNBCI rolled out an investigation of Rathkeale Garda Tom Flavin in relation to the idea that he was perverting the course of justice in preventing certain named individuals being prosecuted for serious driving offences including driving without insurance.”
“The full resources of the investigation were deployed. In October 2018, his family home was searched, personal possessions seized. He was suspended. His reputation was shredded,” Mr O’Gorman said.
Calling for an examination of the GNBCI’s probe of Gda Flavin, the solicitor added: “For seven long years he and his family have been in a wasteland of isolation and suspicion Always, he held his head up and protested his innocence. It has been my privilege to have represented him.”
“After a trial he has been unanimously acquitted and his journey is over. He is today the man he always was — The innocent Tom Flavin.”
“Serious questions have now to be asked of this elite branch of the Gardaí as to how all of this could have possibly been visited on an innocent man and his family,” Mr O’Gorman added.
During the trial Gda Flavin’s barrister, senior counsel Mark Nicholas, had argued that the prosecution had no smoking-gun evidence against Gda Flavin and he asked the jury to dismiss the allegations.
Fiona Murphy, prosecuting, had told the jury that the case against Gda Flavin was anchored on “circumstantial” evidence.
“There is no direct evidence, instead the prosecution relies on indirect evidence,” Ms Murphy said.
In the statement provided by his solicitor afterwards, Gda Flavin said: “The whole case asks serious questions of standards and leadership at the upper levels of the Garda force.”
Speaking after the trial, Garda Frank Thornton, Garda Representative Association Limerick Division, a former president of the association, said: “I welcome the jury’s verdict as it totally vindicates Garda Flavin of any wrongdoing, but there is now a bigger question that requires an answer: why would it take almost seven years for this case to reach conclusion?”
“This member, like many of his colleagues, has spent years trying to clear his name with a dark cloud of unfair dishonour hanging over him.”
Garda Thornton said cases involving Garda members should be dealt with quickly to ensure “the health and wellbeing of our members, but also to rebuild trust in the communities they serve”.
