Making a statement to the Garda?

Finnbar01

What happens if a garda refuses to take a statement from you? Are they breaking the law and if so, which law are they breaking?

What can you do to get them to take a statement from you?

Victor

First off, write everything down.

Finnbar01 wrote: »

What can you do to get them to take a statement from you?

Talk to a solicitor. They may charge.

Peregrinus

There's no law that requires the guards to "take a statement" from you. Taking a statement is something the guards do as part of an investigation they are conducting, if they think you have information which might be relevant and admissible evidence in any prosecution they may bring, and they want to document what that evidence would be.

It's hard to know how to answer your question without knowing why you think the guards should be taking a statement from you. Has a crime or potential crime been reported to the guards? Are they conducting an investigation? Do you have relevant information?

GM228

Peregrinus wrote: »

There's no law that requires the guards to "take a statement" from you. Taking a statement is something the guards do as part of an investigation they are conducting, if they think you have information which might be relevant and admissible evidence in any prosecution they may bring, and they want to document what that evidence would be.

It's hard to know how to answer your question without knowing why you think the guards should be taking a statement from you. Has a crime or potential crime been reported to the guards? Are they conducting an investigation? Do you have relevant information?

+1

Gardaí have a discretion when it comes to investigation of or prosecution in relation to a crime.

Depends what your statement is in relation to.
Do you wish to report a crime?

Fred Swanson

This post has been deleted.

NUTLEY BOY

OP a bit more background information might help people to formulate a reply.

In some circumstances it might actually be an offence not to report something and or to withhold information.

Is this something whereby you want to report a matter and have it investigated by the Gardaí ?

Finnbar01

If you were assaulted and went to the Gardaí to make a complaint, would the Garda not be obliged to take a statement from you?

If you are making a complaint, then I would imagine yes, they should be taking a statement of complaint from you.
Is there any reason that they have refused?

Fred Swanson

This post has been deleted.

infogiver

Finnbar01 wrote: »

If you were assaulted and went to the Gardaí to make a complaint, would the Garda not be obliged to take a statement from you?

Did they tell you why they wouldn't take a statement from you?

Finnbar01

infogiver wrote: »

Did they tell you why they wouldn't take a statement from you?

It was a friend of mine and they wouldn't tell him why.

Did your friend have alcohol on him?
Gardai won't take a statement from someone under the influence.
Or was he the only guard in the station?
Did He stop a guard on the street?
Was the guard in a position to take a statement at that time?
Can he make the statement some other time?

infogiver

Finnbar01 wrote: »

It was a friend of mine and they wouldn't tell him why.

Well, to be honest, I wouldn't believe that because it's just not believable.

Finnbar01

infogiver wrote: »

Well, to be honest, I wouldn't believe that because it's just not believable.

Oh it most certainly did happen. He had two witnesses with him, who can verify that he was assaulted and what he told me as true.

Finnbar01

Finnbar01 wrote: »

Oh it most certainly did happen. He had two witnesses with him, who can verify that he was assaulted and what he told me as true.

What about my questions?

infogiver

Finnbar01 wrote: »

Oh it most certainly did happen. He had two witnesses with him, who can verify that he was assaulted and what he told me as true.

So 3 adults went to the Garda station for 1 to make a statement.
The Garda refused to take a statement and all 3 left the Station without finding out why.
No.
I still don't believe you.

Finnbar01

bubblypop wrote: »

Did your friend have alcohol on him?
Gardai won't take a statement from someone under the influence.
Or was he the only guard in the station?
Did He stop a guard on the street?
Was the guard in a position to take a statement at that time?
Can he make the statement some other time?

No he wasn't drunk or under any influence. I also don't know how many guards were there. The guard was on desk duty, so I'm sure he was in the position to make a statement.

Finnbar01

infogiver wrote: »

So 3 adults went to the Garda station for 1 to make a statement.
The Garda refused to take a statement and all 3 left the Station without finding out why.
No.
I still don't believe you.

Well, that's fair enough, I can't say anything more.

Could the guard get into trouble for not taking the statement?

Fred Swanson

This post has been deleted.

infogiver

Finnbar01 wrote: »

Well, that's fair enough, I can't say anything more.

Could the guard get into trouble for not taking the statement?

Your saying that the conversation ended with:
Garda: "no I'm not taking a statement off you".
Your friend: "why"
Garda: " I'm not telling you"
Your friend: " Goodbye ".

Finnbar01

Finnbar01 wrote: »

No he wasn't drunk or under any influence. I also don't know how many guards were there. The guard was on desk duty, so I'm sure he was in the position to make a statement.

If he was on duty in the public office how would he be in a position to take a statement?
He is employed answering the public callers, phones, signing passports etc.
I think you need to ask your friend more questions.

Finnbar01

infogiver wrote: »

Your saying that the conversation ended with:
Garda: "no I'm not taking a statement off you".
Your friend: "why"
Garda: " I'm not telling you"
Your friend: " Goodbye ".

The conversation went on for quite a while with the guard ignore him

Finnbar01

bubblypop wrote: »

If he was on duty in the public office how would he be in a position to take a statement?
He is employed answering the public callers, phones, signing passports etc.
I think you need to ask your friend more questions.

So he should have assigned him another guard, told him to wait until someone is available to take his statement?

infogiver

Finnbar01 wrote: »

The conversation went on for quite a while with the guard ignore him

If the Garda was ignoring him then it wasn't a conversation.
It was your friend talking to himself.
Was your friend drunk or otherwise under the influence?

Finnbar01

Finnbar01 wrote: »

So he should have assigned him another guard, told him to wait until someone is available to take his statement?

Maybe there wasn't any other guards available?
I'd be very surprised if there's something else your friend didn't tell you

BattleCorp

I wouldn't rush off to GSOC just yet. Get your friend and their witnesses to go back into the Garda Station and report the assault. If the Garda refuses to take a statement at this time, then go to GSOC.

GM228

Fred Swanson wrote: »

Does the desk garda have the discretion to refuse to take a complaint?

Discretion applies to all powers and duties.

GSOC have suggested previously that failure to do so could be considered a breach of discipline under S5 of the Garda Síochána (Discipline) Regulations 2007 for discourtesy towards a member of the public, but that is highly unlikely considering that:-

A. Gardaí have a common law power of discretion which trumps any order from the commissioner/minister etc.

B. The High Court has previously held that Gardaí can't be held accountable or negligent for failure to act due to not owing a duty of care to the public in relation to their actions/inactions arising from their prosecutorial or investigatory functions.


Going back to the OPs query, whilst Gardaí can strictly use discretion and refuse to take a statement they simply don't do that unless there is an obvious reason of it being a frivolous complaint for example, or the person is being vexatious, but even then they usually still take a statement however unless of course the person is intoxicated to such an extent that the statement may not be accurate, in other words a refusal to take a statement for no good reason simply does not happen.

Peregrinus

Finnbar01 wrote: »

The guard was on desk duty, so I'm sure he was in the position to make a statement.

No, he wasn't. He was on desk duty. He's not free to be conducting investigations.

As I understand it, the guy on desk duty notes the complaint and passes it up the line. Unless a decision is taken not to pursue it further, it's assigned to an officer for investigation. The officer investigates by (among other things) talking to witnesses and, at the appropriate time, he takes a formal statement.

How rapidly this happens depends on the the seriuosness of the crime and the urgency of investigating it. But taking statements generally comes quite late in the piece. For example, if there is or might be something like security camera footage that might cast light on the incident, the guards will generally want to obtain and view that in case it is relevant to the interviews they wish to conduct, and all that will have to happen - the viewing of the footage and the interviews - before they get to the stage of taking formal statements.

If your friends went into a station in the belief that a statement would be taken there and then, they were mistaken.

agrievedman

4 years ago a couple in my town in order to cover up her husbands affair went to a garda station and made false misleading and malicious statements against me using their social status to discredit me with their connections. The wife then went on social media with her letter from an garda which read were sorry to hear you were the victim of a crime adding weight to her and her husbands accusations because she wouldnt have it known that her husband was with other women .
I was crucified publicly and for 3.5 years i was refused the right to make a statement of complaint about the false statements they made . The severity of the hatchet job i was subject to led to an overdose which i shouldnt have survived but did. 4 years on the law has no assistance for me after my career , mental health and family were destroyed with no adsistance from gardai or courts. I finally got a gsoc investigation open but hold little faith in it after reading gsoc stats whereby garda wrongdoing and negligence has a poor 6% rate of prosecution. The way the law applied to me in this matter was that i was guilty because two statements were given against me whereby i had just my word. Given this any woman can walk into any garda station with a complaint and then when it comes to time for court drop the charges so i cant defend myself and gardai wont prosecute because of who she is and her connections 4 years of my life and my familys life destroyed

Samuel T. Cogley

Talk to a solicitor about defamation.