Drew Harris and the continuing story of the bike

Imagine your boss accusing you of stealing in these circumstances , being cleared repeatedly and very publicly and then still being slandered in public , by the supposed leader of the national polices service .

id find a good solicitor first of all id try to ensure he is removed so that he cant do that kind of damage to other innocent people and then go after millions and millions and then offending persons personal financial health.

i ve said this before here but this isn't a unique case of innocents people being suspended for years then cleared , its just the most public one

The notion that - simply by being a Garda - somebody is automatically telling the truth really has to go.

Harris is a disgrace.

The man was cleared after all that time and instead of just coming out and saying the man is innocent and we need to do better in terms of investigating these type of things in future, he basically said there is more to the story than you know.

Disgrace.

I hope he does sue.

The whole thing was an absolute disgrace from start to finish but Harris had some cheek saying full details not released!

What a load of balony. We had a number of very detailed articles given a very clear account of what happened and four years after the man is finally cleared Harris tries to pull a fast one on their total incompetence by saying full facts not released!

Just as bad is McEntee yet again backing up Harris. The both of them need to go.

I think has much more serious things going on than a garda taking a condemned bike to give to a man to help him out until he got things sorted. This should have been sorted in a half hour not 4 years and causing this amount of grief. We have had drugs go missing from evidence, files lost, templemore and the finances there to name but a few but we have had more attention to this guard and this bike than those more serious things.

This is a ridiculous hill for the commissioner to die on, the commissioner should have just taken the hit, held his hands up but no he doubled down and now an assistant commissioner is looking at the report and people who changed their statements. Again ridiculous carry on from the higher echelons of the Gardaí. Hope the guard does take a case against them.

Yes put the proper procedures in place. Warn the garda through the correct processes. That would all be progress.

However, he has been cleared. It has taken years but he has been cleared.

Drew Harris should have gone to committee and said, procedure needed to be followed but it took too long and promise to be better in future. Then he should have apologised to the garda and the old man and left it there. Instead, he decided, despite the Garda being cleared to state that the full facts were not known to public. He basically decided to play his last card and **** all over the Garda again to ensure there is always a question mark over his actions.

Harris needs to go.

1000 page report on a triviality. Obviously, there was bad blood in that station or it would not have gone past

the Sergeant in charge. An issue like this would be dealt with in house anywhere else.Involvement of the National Criminal Investigation Gardai, at least 2 Assistant Commissioners,a Chief Super, the DPPs office is pure comedy. They always cry about no Garda resources. This proves what I’ve always thought, they waste the resources they have with poor management, like the HSE etc. The RUC must have been as inefficient, as Harris has shown by his ineptitude down south. Mr Tansey is the right man to sort out Harris and Co.

I believe the garda is taking a compensation case

Iirc the gards solicitor mentioned that Harris made those comments under privilege so can't be used against him. I'm open to correction though.

Time for the Commissioner to return to the wee six and use his pedantic jobsworth approach up there

If it came to a defamation case, the commissioner wouldn’t have to say a word.

The Garda would be in the box, getting grilled and told to prove his case.

Shame.

Are you a barrister?

So suing the force- hmmm- good luck with that. All in the detail really around what exactly he’s suing for. I support him I truely do and have done since this story broke but I imagine being a guard there’s all sorts of legislation that protects the hierarchy from legal action - we’ll wait and see but even an attempt to sue just shows how nothing that Garda has to hide.

The taxpayer, you and me, ultimately funded this pile of sh1t investigation which as someone said, could have been sorted with a quiet bollicing by a supervisor then off to the pub and no hard feelings- and yes the elderly man would have got to keep the bike too.

This innuendo is a dangerous precedent and as someone rightly said above, all the hallmarks of a Garda McCabe muddy the waters type disparaging comment - he tried to justify 3 years investigation and unknown grief for the Garda and his family by essentially trying to allude there was more to the story - you certainly don’t say those things in public. The investigation is over - Garda cleared - that’s all he had to say

To be able to confidently make a statement like that- probably.

It's impossible to know what he meant because he did not clarify.

You don't have to be a barrister to know how the courts, and the justice system work, or to be aware of the proofs needed to win a case.

Plenty of people involved.

This is not an exam. The thread is not about my knowledge of the law. I'm not sure why you're making it that.

I can back it up. It's totally off topic

Maybe just let the definitive statement about whatever go. I don't see how it matters. A view was expressed. That's all. This is not a court witness box where a question must be answered.

The thread is about Drew Harris's statement to the PAC...

unless you are the judge that may be ruling on the case its hardly up to you now is it ?

s it is he is entitled to take any case he wants and let the courts decide , not some randomer on the internet

Because all opinions on the internet are "backed up" ?

How are whistleblowers and those who assist them treated in this country?

The garda suspended for lending a bicycle to an elderly man assisted a whistleblower colleague who’d raised evidence of another guard’s collusion in the drug trade. The suspended garda – as well as the assistance he gave the whistleblower – was identified to colleagues during a tribunal.  

An investigation into garda involvement in midlands drug dealing “found evidence to substantiate claims” made by whistleblower Nicky Keogh but that this evidence fell short of what was required for criminal prosecutions. Among these claims were allegations that an Athlone garda had a relationship with a female drug dealer and had intentionally thwarted garda drug operations to her benefit. 

Bike loan garda was identified in tribunal (ontheditch.com)