It is difficult to conceive of more serious charges against police officers than those which the Court of Criminal Appeal has laid at the doors of two members of the Garda Síochána in Donegal.
And it is difficult to imagine a greater wrong against a citizen than that he should spend years in prison on the basis of fabricated evidence, presented before the courts by experienced police officers.
The implications of yesterday's judgment in the case of nightclub-owner Mr Frank Shortt are enormous for the national police force and for the Irish criminal justice system. Something of a comfortable myth has been shattered. Planting evidence and fitting up suspects are not the preserve of bent coppers in English cities.
In delivering its judgment, the court has been explicit and devastatingly unambiguous. Judicial scrutiny of garda behaviour has not always had this result in the past - even where the indications of wrong-doing have been manifest. Public confidence in the integrity of the courts will have been affirmed by the verdict. Respect for the criminal justice system in the broad sense will have been enhanced.
The Garda authorities have to study the implications of the verdict. Doubtless there is shock among the vast majority of gardai who do their job conscientiously and honestly. But there can be few of these who are utterly surprised that such things can happen within the force. A culture of concealment has survived in the Garda Síochána - as it would be in any police force which has not been obliged to move towards more developed value-systems of openness and accountability.
The survival of this culture is emphatically not the fault of the gardai themselves. They do not make the framework of law within which they operate. That is the responsibility of the politicians. And successive politicians of various parties have shied away from the creation of properly-constituted, independent structures for supervision of the force and for the effective investigation of complaints against members. The Garda Complaints Board has never been more than a token, since it has never been adequately resourced, staffed or provided for in government spending.
The Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell, has made it clear that reform of the Garda Síochána is high on his list of priorities. He has indicated that he intends to strengthen the force's operational capacities while at the same time ensuring that it is amenable to an independent inspectorate. This is a balanced, realistic approach which would bring the Garda into line with best practice internationally. If the Minister were to achieve nothing else in his tenure at St Stephen's Green it would earn him a notable place in the history of the criminal justice system.
Citizens of this State are entitled to a police service which is efficient, effective and which operates within the law at all times. The vast majority of the members themselves want a Garda Síochána which meets these criteria. But in the absence of effective, independent systems of scrutiny, the temptation to operate outside the law will always subvert a few. The quicker Mr McDowell rolls out and implements his programme the better.