SHATTER ATTACKS GUERIN REPORT FOR ‘RUSHING TO JUDGEMENT’
Alan Shatter has launched a blistering attack on the author of the Guerin Report, effectively saying he has been the victim of a ‘Kangaroo Court’.
The former Justice Minister has addressed the Dáil for the first time since he resigned on the Cooke Report, which looked into alleged bugging of the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (GSOC).
However he spent most of his speech criticising Senior Counsel and Wexford native Seán Guerin, who examined the claims of whistleblower Garda Sergeant Maurice McCabe.
He accused Mr. Guerin of “rushing to judgement” to get the report out quickly and says the fact he was not interviewed was a breach of his Constitutional right to natural justice.
Deputy Shatter told the Dáil that no-one should be allowed to be “investigator, prosecutor, judge, jury and executioner”.
“I believe all of us should be entitled to know that we cannot – by way of any form of inquiry or review or other means – be secretly put on trial, have charges levied against us of which we have no knowledge, be prosecuted without being informed of the evidence, and convicted without being given the opportunity to speak or defend ourselves” he said.
“I believe that the unprecedented approach to this review and examination of preliminary inquiry must never be repeated” he added.
