A Garda superintendent has told the High Court it is not considered "appropriate" for gardaí to notify neighbours that a convicted sex offender is living among them.
He was giving evidence in the case involving a Dublin family who claim they were forced to leave Ballybunion, Co Kerry, where they had moved under the Rural Resettlement Scheme.
While gardaí would take "sensible precautions" to protect the community in such circumstances, there would be "a big risk" that telling local people could create "hysteria" and lead to vigilantism, Chief Supt Michael E Maher said.
If any member of the Garda leaked information to the media that a convicted rapist, James O'Donoghue, was living with relatives in Ballybunion, Co Kerry, in 1999, he added, that member would have been in breach of Garda regulations.
Supt Maher, the officer in charge of the district containing Ballybunion, said he had disclosed no such information to the media and was not aware that any other member of the Garda did.
He was giving evidence on the closing day of an action by Alan and Phyllis Gray, and their son Francis, Drumalee Road, North Circular Road, Dublin.
The case is against the Minister for Justice and the State, and alleges that gardaí leaked information in April 1999 to the media that Mr O'Donoghue, a nephew of Mr and Mrs Gray, was staying with them, in breach of their constitutional rights to privacy.
As a result of various media stories based on such information, they claim they were shunned by the local community, suffered mental distress, anxiety and personal injury and ultimately left Ballybunion and returned to Dublin. The Grays had settled in Ballybunion in 1995.
The four-day hearing concluded yesterday and Mr Justice John Quirke reserved judgment.
In his evidence, Supt Maher agreed with Mark de Blacam SC, for the Grays, that any unauthorised communication to the media by a member of the Garda of information secured in the course of duty and not available to the public was a breach of Garda regulations.
He agreed that various Garda documents containing information compiled by gardaí in 1999 relating to Mr O'Donoghue were confidential documents containing highly sensitive information. Any disclosure to the media of their contents would breach Garda regulations, he said.
If a journalist contacted any member of the Garda about such information, the appropriate action for that Garda to take was to refer the journalist to the Garda press office or to himself as superintendent.
He said it was vitally important that the dissemination of such information be controlled by the Garda Síochána and that disclosure of such information to the public or media could compromise a Garda investigation, lead to an offender taking flight or damage innocent persons.
In response to Mr Justice Quirke, Supt Maher agreed that gardaí were presented with a "difficult problem" when a sex offender moved into their area.
Gardaí had a responsibility to protect persons in the area and for that reason, all gardaí in the area would be circulated with information of the offender's presence. As many gardaí as possible would also try to get to know the offender on a visual basis and would notify any sightings of him to a Garda collator.
If a report of a sex offence was made, gardaí would examine if the person was a potential suspect.
Gardaí would be conscious the offender had been convicted, had served his sentence and there might be no information suggesting he would reoffend. However, they would have to take sensible precautions.
It would not have been appropriate either in 1999 or now to notify neighbours of the offender's presence as there would be a big risk this could create hysteria.
