A Garda who was the subject of false accusations over the shooting of a dog has won his High Court challenge against the Commissioner's refusal to backdate his promotion to rank of inspector.
The action was taken by Inspector Tom Quinn which arose after his 2019 promotion to the rank of inspector was held up for seven months while the Garda Ombudsman, investigated what were held to be false and baseless allegations against him.
He was fully vindicated by GSOC after it probed a shooting incident that occurred in December 2018.
Backdate promotion
In his judgment Mr Justice Charles Meenan ruled the Garda Commissioner was wrong to refuse to backdate Inspector Quinn's promotion.
The court said that given GSOC's findings not backdating the promotion would "wrongly penalise" the inspector over what amounted to be false accusations against him.
When the matter was before the High Court on Monday Mr Justice Meenan said he was making orders in favour of the inspector including one quashing the refusal to backdate the promotion and directed that the Inspector's legal costs be paid by the Commissioner.
He was due to attain the rank of Inspector in January 2019.
Due to the investigation his promotion was held up until late August 2019 after GSOC's probe had concluded.
The Inspector applied to have his promotion backdated to January 2019.
In his judgment Mr Justice Meenan said that when serving in the Roscommon-Longford Division in December 2018 the Inspector, who at that time held the rank of Sergeant, attended at a property at Ferriskill near Granard in Co Longford, with a civilian.
The Inspector claimed a property owner attacked him with a slash hook and attacked the civilian.
It was also alleged that a Belgian Shephard Malinos dog was goaded to attack the Garda.
The Inspector, who warned the property owner that he was armed, drew his weapon.
Fearing for his own safety after the dog came at him, the Inspector fired one shot, wounding the animal.
A ricochet from that shot caused a minor injury to the property's owner's leg. The man made a complaint to GSOC, and strongly rejected the inspectors account of what happened.
GSOC, in dismissing all the complaints, determined that Inspector Quinn had discharged his firearm in a lawful and justified manner.
Promotion process
The inspector went through the promotion process and was informed he was successful.
He expected that he would be promoted along with the other successful candidates to the rank of inspector when the results of that process were published in January 2019.
It was accepted by the Inspector that the complaints against him had to be investigated.
Mr Justice Meenan said it was very clear that the reason why the applicant was not promoted in early 2019 was because of the complaint.
It was reasonable, the Judge said, that the proposed promotion of any Garda who is the subject of a complaint should not proceed until the truth of the matter is ascertained.
The complaint to GSOC was deemed false, but Inspector Quinn faced a penalty in terms of loss of salary, and general loss of standing because his promotion was delayed for seven months.
Mr Justice Meenan said the commissioner's refusal to backdate the promotion was unreasonable and flew in the face of fundamental reason and common sense.
