Gardai have now spoken to the GSOC officer at the centre of the Hutch party probe - and he’s admitted he attended.
It is understood that gardai with the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation have now interviewed the man, who retired from GSOC last week amid allegations that he attended a party with ‘The Monk’ following his acquittal for the murder of David Byrne.
The officer, who was facing an internal probe, has now told gardai that he did in fact attend the ‘welcome home’ party for Gerry Hutch last Monday.
But, it is understood he has claimed that he was among neighbours who were invited to the party - and that he did not have a personal relationship with Hutch.
He is understood to have made full admissions and told investigating officers that he will continue to engage with their probe.
Gardai were yesterday asked by GSOC to investigate the claims, as they try to establish whether any criminality might have occurred.
It comes after Garda Commissioner Drew Harris yesterday stated: "Obviously information within GSOC is protected in the same way it is protected within An Garda Siochana by criminal law as well, so there are potential offences, but we’re examining whether offences occur in the first place."
The Irish Mirror broke the story about the GSOC officer’s alleged attendance at the Hutch party and subsequent resignation last Friday.
Since then the Minister for Justice, Garda Commissioner and garda members have all expressed concern about the allegations.
But the matter is being taken so seriously now that sources have told us GSOC investigators are likely to examine every case the man – who worked at the organisation for almost five years – was involved in.
It is understood the now-resigned GSOC officer was part of the investigation into the death of Detective Superintendent Colm Fox, who was the lead investigator into the murder of David Byrne at Dublin’s Regency Hotel Airport in 2016.
Det Sup Fox died in a horrific tragedy in Ballymun Garda Station in 2019. As such, the man had access to the Garda investigative file into the Regency - including highly secret information..
The man also interacted with several people connected to the investigations – including David Byrne’s parents Sadie and James.
Sources say every interaction the ex-investigator had – on the Regency case and other investigations – will now have to be looked at again.
The sources also said multiple GSOC files the man worked on included personal details on a significant number of gardai he was investigating – and the body will have to probe if any of that data has been compromised.
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