Garda takes legal challenge over finding of disciplinary breach over Pulse access

A garda has secured permission from the High Court to challenge a finding that he breached disciplinary regulations by accessing the Pulse system on matters not connected with his duties.

The information allegedly accessed concerned persons involved in criminality and the Kinahan/Hutch feud.

Garda Kevin McNulty, who works in the carriage office and has been a member of the force for some 30 years, wants the High Court to quash a finding made last January that he had breached Garda discipline.

He denies any breach and claims an investigation into allegations against him completely lacked fair procedures.

Mark Harty SC, for Garda McNulty, secured leave for judicial review against the Garda Commissioner aimed at securing orders quashing the finding that the garda breached Garda discipline and the sanction imposed.

Permission to bring the challenge was granted this week, on an ex-parte basis (one side only represented), by Mr Justice Charles Meenan who returned the matter to May.

The alleged breach of discipline arose after Garda McNulty, who does some freelance photography work when off duty, was stopped by another garda in the Cork Street area of Dublin on July 8th, 2017 while in his private car in the company of a journalist.

A member of the public had reported Garda McNulty’s vehicle to gardaí, claiming it had been acting suspiciously.

The garda inquired why Garda McNulty was in the Crumlin area as there had been various threats to people living in that part of the city. After his car was stopped, Garda McNulty accepted there was a misunderstanding and heard nothing more about the incident till February 2018.

He was then informed he was under internal investigation for alleged breaches of Garda discipline and in July 2019 details of the alleged breaches were formally provided to him.

They included allegations of accessing information, not connected to his duties, held on the Garda Pulse system concerning individuals connected to the Kinahan/Hutch feud. It was also alleged Garda McNulty made an unauthorised communication in relation to this information and improperly used his position as a garda for his private advantage.

Garda McNulty, in interviews with those conducting the internal investigation, rejected the allegations and said, as part of his role, he needs to access a lot of information contained on the PULSE system. He maintained there was no evidence whatsoever he had been in breach of confidence, had communicated information to anyone else or corruptly used any information for his own use.

He said he was shocked when he was found last January to have been in breach of Garda discipline. In a sworn statement, he said he could “only speculate that the events of July 8th 2017 have been misconstrued and inappropriately linked to some form of misconduct on my part”.

There were no breaches of discipline by him and he did not provide any information to the journalist, he said. He claims he was not afforded fair procedures in the disciplinary process and was asked by investigators to comment on matters such as details of various Pulse entries and documents that could have been disclosed to him but were not.

No reasons were given for the findings against him and due process was not followed during the investigation, it is claimed. Had he been provided with the information in question, it would have resulted in a finding he had not breached Garda discipline, he claims.