Whats the difference here Re:Entrapment.

ScouseMouse

Inspired by another thread, how is this?

The gardai in Limerick arrested people for solicting a female undercover garda for prostitution services and it was widely published in the press.

If its ok to invite/entice/entrap someone to break the law like this, why are the gardai not allowed to catch other people using these methods.

Scenerios that come to mind would be:

Leaving a laptop on a seat in a parked car.

Dressing up as an OAP and inviting getting jumped on in a high crime area.

Leaving a front door open of a house and see who walks in and robs it.

I know the gardai are limited in what they can do, so what is it in law, that is preventing them ?

(With thanks to the mod who ok'd me to ask this)

Marquis de carabas

Its debatable whether those cases in Limerick would have stood up to scrutiny.

As far as I know they all pleaded guilty.

seamus

The problem is that people seem to misunderstand what exactly entrapment is.

Entrapment is when someone is encouraged (or forced) by the Gardai to commit a crime that they had not intended on committing.

So walking up to someone and asking, "Do you want to buy drugs" is entrapment because you cannot prove that they had intended to buy drugs before you offered them. But if you stand around looking shifty and wait for someone to come up and ask you if you have any drugs to sell, that is not entrapment because the perp had intended to commit the offence.

Likewise, a Garda dressed provocatively standing on the street corner is not committing entrapment. Nobody sees a prostitute and thinks, "Yes, I fancy an aul prostitute tonight". They have had the specific intention of soliciting a prostitute, they haven't been "coerced" into it.

The three scenarios you mention are actually fine. Nobody is being coerced into committing a crime.

There could be some level of argument in terms of how something is presented - in the laptop example, if they left the car window wide open and the laptop on an elevated platform on the front seat, then you could make arguments for entrapment.
However if it's in a locked vehicle just left on the seat, then that's not "inviting" or coercing anyone to take it.

In general, providing an opportunity to commit a crime is not entrapment. It's only entrapment really when a direct hand is taken by the Gardai to encourage the commital of it.

Kevin3

Gardai's response to entrapment allegation in Limerick case.

MagicSean

All those situations in the op would not be entrapment. They can be done.

Victor

There was a separate operation like the Limerick one in Dublin, which again had a few dozen convictions in one neighbourhood. It was stated that the gardaí were dressed in normal everyday clothes and that they were still approached, essentially for being female on a public street in that neighbourhood.

Marcusm

MagicSean wrote: »

All those situations in the op would not be entrapment. They can be done.

I imagine you would agree that they wouldn't be a good use of limited Garda resources.