Garda management will decide today whether to prolong the suspension from duty of a Co Donegal Garda sergeant who was arrested on Tuesday in connection with allegations of abuse of process.
The officer is the first member of the force to be suspended in the Donegal division arising from an internal Garda inquiry which started a year ago after the collapse of a local murder investigation.
Senior Garda sources said yesterday that recent media claims about charges against six or more officers arising from a wide-ranging single inquiry were wrong.
The major internal inquiry was instituted in April last year. This was prompted by the collapse of a murder investigation into the death of a middle-aged man in Co Donegal in 1996.
The man, Mr Richard Barron (55), of Raphoe, died from head injuries he received on the night of October 14th, 1996.
Mr Barron's body was found at the side of a road leading out of the town and, at first, it was thought he had been the victim of a hit-and-run incident. However, post-mortem results showed he had been beaten to death and only then did the murder investigation begin.
Mr Barron had spent the evening drinking in a number of bars in Raphoe and, according to a witness, had been attacked by two men. Two local men were subsequently arrested and questioned about the killing.
The local investigators completed a file in March 1998 and submitted this to the Director of Public Prosecutions. In April last year the DPP directed there should be no charges. The men who were questioned by the Garda made a number of allegations against the investigators and these were the subject of the internal Garda inquiry.
Last year, the internal inquiry broadened to investigate further allegations including one from a Co Sligo man who had visited Donegal regularly in previous years.
This man, who has a criminal record, has said that a member of the Garda made him sign a false statement containing allegations of minor criminal behaviour against two Co Donegal men.
As a result of this claim about alleged abuse of process, a sergeant was arrested on Tuesday and suspended from duty for 72 hours. A decision will be taken today whether his suspension will be prolonged or whether he will be allowed to return to duty. The officer strenuously denies the charges.
The internal inquiry is due to be completed by the end of next month and the file will then be sent to the DPP. It is expected it will then take a period of some months before the DPP's office gives a direction on whether or not to bring charges.
The suspension of another garda last October is understood to stem from another internal inquiry.
This is said to originate from legal separation proceedings in which a woman has made allegations against a Donegal garda. These allegations include claims that officers interfered with or hid weapons which had been recovered from IRA arms caches. It is thought unlikely that any charges will arise from these allegations.