Fiosrú open investigation into gun holster of murdered Garda Colm Horkan

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

The Hard Shoulder, with Ciara Kelly and Shane Colman, on Newstalk, with Ciara.

Ciara Kelly (0:08)

Now, Fiosrú, the Office of the Police Ombudsman, has said that it has opened an investigation into the gun holster belonging to murdered Detective Garda Colm Horkan. Detective Garda Horkan was murdered in Castle Ray in County Rosscommon in June 2020 when Stephen Silver grabbed Detective Horkan's gun from his holster and shot him with it multiple times. And Mick Clifford, special correspondent with the Irish Examiner, joins us now.

Mick, remind us of the details of that time and what's happening now.

Mick Clifford (0:40)

Yes, Ciara. As you said, it was June, it was the 17th of June 2020 Colm Horkan, Detective Garda Colm Horkan was in duty in Castle Ray County, Rosscommon. He encountered Stephen Silver that evening and at some stage, Stephen Silver was able to disarm Detective Horkan of his gun and he turned the gun on Colm Horkan and he shot him 11 times, murdering him. He is at the moment serving a life sentence for that murder.

The issue that arises is over the holster and how exactly Stephen Silver was able to take possession of it. And that brings us to the whole issue of the defective holster that was around at the time.

Ciara Kelly (1:25)

Okay, and am I right in thinking that before Detective Colm Horkan's death another guard had self-injured with a gun using the same holster?

Mick Clifford (1:35)

Precisely, it was just six days before that, it was the detective guard Eddie Colm outside the residence for the Israeli ambassador in Dublin. His weapon discharged and shot him in the groin. It was a serious injury. He recovered, he physically recovered anyway, it was a traumatic incident.

That occurred now, I suppose, just to put things in context, at that time, within Ungardy Shikhanah, there was rumblings, you might call it, among certain armed guardie about the holster and worries about it. For instance, the material, the leather material was softer than normally would have been the case. There was a safety feature that was off-center. And as a result, the firearm could be grabbed from within the holster by somebody other than the person wearing it. And in some instances, could fall out of the holster, which may or may not, we don't know, explain what exactly happened Colm Horkan. But one way or the other, that issue was there.

There were concerns expressed within the guardie about it at various levels. Following the shooting outside the Israeli embassy, the holster was referred to the Garda Technical Bureau. Now, just putting in context, the head of the Garda Technical Bureau at the time was Detective Superintendent Brian O'Reilly, who people may remember is one of the main whistleblowers that was in the RT documentary a few weeks ago. They examined the holster and they found that it was dangerously defective. Now, they examined it under laboratory conditions to a very high standard.

Notwithstanding that, the holster was then referred to other guardie to examine it, and they did so, and they came back, said something along the lines of, yeah, it's not ideal, but it's not dangerous. Now, that was, you know, there is an issue over that. You have two very much conflicting opinions as to the danger of the holster. Equally, after Colm Horkan's murder six days later, his holster and firearm were referred to another guardie, again, outside the expert body, which was the technical bureau. And that came back with a decision to the effect that, yes, it was defective, but not dangerous. So all of that is highly controversial. And all of that, I think the Horkan family, have called for a public inquiry that has led to great concerns among his family as to, you know, how well armed he was and whether he was effectively being furnished with defective equipment when he was murdered.

Ciara Kelly (4:02)

Okay. So there was concerns around this holster anyway, this type of holster anyway, before Detective Colm Horkan died. And that was, Mick, you know more about this than most people. Would it be normal practice within Ongar, the Siachona, for something to be sent to the technical bureau and them to have passed a kind of a judgment on it and then for it to be sent elsewhere more than once to other people who were not experts like the technical bureau?

For a second opinion, I'm unsure as to why anyone else's expertise would have needed to be brought in at that point anyway.

Mick Clifford (4:40)

I can't hear what you're suggesting there would probably go to the heart of any proper inquiry into it. I mean, as you say, it was the experts pointed out that there was a major problem here, yet a second opinion was sought in the first instance after the Israeli embassy shooting. And in the second instance, Colm Horkan's murder, it didn't go to the technical bureau at all. It went to other officers. And I think there would be a lot of unease as to why that course of action was taken. Now, there may be an explanation. It's just, I haven't heard it and to the best of my knowledge, most people who are familiar with this haven't heard it and then on Garda, Ciara, Conor. So that is definitely one of the main issues that would have to be examined.