Five Gardai will not be charged in shell to sea tape

Five gardaí involved in making remarks of a sexually suggestive and disturbing nature at a Corrib protest in Mayo will not face criminal charges.

The recording was made following the arrest of two women at a protest against the Corrib pipeline in Co Mayo.

This afternoon the Garda Ombudsman Commission published its interim report into the incident.

The comments were recorded on a pocket camcorder seized from one of the women when they were arrested.

A garda put it in his pocket and it was unknowingly left in record mode - and this recorded a conversation between the gardaí in their vehicle.

The gardaí were heard joking about raping the women if they did not give their names and addresses. They also commented that one of the women - a US citizen - would be deported if she did not co-operate.

The report says a transcript of the recording 'supports these allegations.'

However, the investigation says it established that at no stage were the two women personally threatened about rape or deportation by the gardaí, because 'they did not hear the conversation at the time.'

Separately a detective Garda told the inquiry that one of the women shouted that the gardaí could rape them as they were being arrested. The Ombudsman inquiry said it could not corroborate this statement from the recording because high winds distorted the sound.

The inquiry said it found no evidence of a criminal offence having being committed.

The interim report also found that while footage of the original incident was recovered, parts of the recording were deleted and overwritten.

It said that a 'sequence of deletions from the device had taken place' before it was handed to gardaí.

Shell to Sea says it does not accept that the recording was tampered with.

Spokesperson Caoimhe Kerins said other academic files were removed from the disc before it was handed to the Garda Ombudsman, but the entire file for that day was made available.

All five gardai in the car when the comments were made were interviewed by Garda Ombudsman.

The interim report says investigators established within two days that three of them 'took no active part in the contentious part of the conversation, did not engage with the inappropriate comments or make any inappropriate comments themselves.'

The Ombudsman has now decided that while the other two - a Garda and a Sergeant - remain the subject of a disciplinary inquiry, none of the five will face criminal charges.

The Ombudsman said the level of cooperation it received during its investigation was unsatisfactory - in particular from individuals associated through academic links with the two women.

The report states that one of the two women failed to co-operate with the investigation.

On Friday 8 April this year, the Garda Commissioner apologised for the comments.

Martin Callinan said he was sorry for the offence caused to the 'community we serve' and for the hurt and pain felt in particular by victims of sex crime.