May 29, 2014
By Cianan Brennan
The Garda whistleblower at the centre of the latest controversy to hit the force was based at Bray Garda Station.
Garda Nicky Keogh, now working in Athlone, has handed a dossier of evidence over to retired judge Patrick McMahon who is charged with overseeing whistleblower allegations.
The lastest revelations voiced publicly by newly elected MEP Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan, suggest that high- ranking Gardaí were involved in attempting to coerce members of the public to buy illegal drugs in an effort to boost crime- solving figures.
Other allegations include Gardaí cover-ups, the stealing of official files, manufacturing evidence, and the failure of ranking officers to comply with court orders to hand over records. While the Garda press office was unwilling to confrim to the Wicklow Voice that Keogh had been based in Wicklow, it is a matter of public record that he operated from Bray until at least late 2012.
In November of that year Keogh was mentioned in a sitting of Bray District Court as having been present during a fracas outside a nightclub in the town. According to Flanagan, the drug-related offences contained in the new dossier specifically involve members of the public being coerced into buying heroin.
The new allegations further assert that on top of the coercion mentioned, a significant drug dealer well known to the Garda drugs squad in Bray was excluded from the list of persons to be targeted by the operation.
Speaking in the Dáil in his previous role as TD for Roscommon-South Leitrim, Flanagan asserted his admiration for Garda Keogh whilst calling for heightened protection for whistleblowers.
“Nicky Keogh is a hero. He’s done the Gardaí proud and I hope they shake his hand rather than tie a knot in a rat’s tail and put it on his door,” he said.
In 2007 Garda Keogh was directly involved in the conviction and imprisonment of Philip O’Toole for Garda obstruction at Bray seafront. O’Toole was murdered and his body dumped in the Wicklow mountains in 2011 after becoming heavily embroiled in the drug trade and gang fighting between Arklow and Bray.
At the time of his death he had accumulated over 40 criminal convictions for drug- related offences. The new whistleblowing allegations have come just as the dust was settling on the previous Garda controversies which have contributed to a series of high-profile resignations, including that of former Commissioner Martin Callinan and, most significantly, Minister for Justice Alan Shatter.
The scandals, which have seriously undermined confidence in the force across the nation, detail inappropriate behaviour on behalf of Gardaí, together with the revelation of both the bugging of the Garda Ombudsman Commission (GSOC), and the taping of phone calls at Garda stations across the country.
April’s Wicklow Voice exclusively revealed that Bray Station was one of the 26 Garda Divisional Headquarters which had been recording telephone calls over the past 30 years.
This shocking news raised questions about possible legal implications regarding certain crimes and prosecutions processed at Wicklow’s largest and main urban Garda station.
Former Commissioner Callinan resigned from his post on March 25th of this year, the same day the Taoiseach briefed the Dáil regarding the tapping of phones at Garda stations.
Garda named by Ming was stationed in Bray
