An ex-senior garda convicted of serious crimes gave key evidence in the trial of another garda – despite resigning from the force years earlier after he was questioned by detectives about his own crimes.
The disgraced officer’s colleague, ex-garda sergeant Eve Doherty, has spent the last six years trying to overturn her conviction for harassing a state solicitor.
The former senior garda was handed a lengthy prison sentence. His name, the nature of his crimes and the dates of certain events cannot be published for legal reasons.
'The former senior officer’s crimes were already being formally investigated'
The ex-garda resigned from An Garda Síochána more than a decade ago after his crimes were discovered.
Just a few years after his resignation the garda was a key prosecution witness in the 2017 trial of ex-sergeant Eve Doherty.
In 2018 Doherty was jailed for three years after she was convicted of harassing a state solicitor who now holds a senior role at the DPP. She successfully appealed the severity of her sentence and was released after serving 20 months in prison.
During Doherty’s trial, the criminal ex-officer gave sworn testimony in court about evidence he had gathered while investigating the complaint against Doherty.
The Ditch understands the former senior officer’s crimes were already being formally investigated by gardaí just months before he gave evidence for the prosecution at Doherty’s trial.
Doherty unsuccessfully appealed her conviction after mounting legal challenges that took her to the Supreme Court and European Court of Human Rights. She had worked as a garda for 28 years before her dismissal in 2019.
Lawyers acting for Doherty confirmed in June last year they had sent an application under the Criminal Procedure Act 1993 to the attorney general’s office seeking a declaration that she was the victim of a miscarriage of justice.
One of the grounds for her application to the attorney general concerned the “credibility and integrity” of the ex-garda as a witness.
