An inquest into the fatal shooting of an armed robber by gardaí in west Dublin 14 years ago could face further delays if there is any dispute over claims of legal privilege on documents in the case.
The senior coroner for Dublin, Myra Cullinane, acknowledged the potential for a legal dispute over privileged documents to delay the inquest into the death of Garett Molloy who was fatally wounded by gardaí during an attempted armed robbery of a cash-in-transit vehicle outside a Centra store on Foxborough Road, Lucan on May 15, 2009.
At a brief sitting of Dublin District Coroner’s Court on Monday, Dr Cullinane was informed that a final list of documents over which various parties had claimed privilege had been circulated but it still had to be assessed.
The coroner directed that she would hold another hearing towards the end of July to complete the procedure of disclosing documents between gardaí, the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission and the Molloy family.
Dr Cullinane, who is the third coroner to oversee the inquest into the death of Mr Molloy in the past 14 years, noted that a coroner does not have the legal powers to issue a ruling on any dispute in relation to a claim of privilege over documents at an inquest.
Despite her inability to rule on any disagreement over privileged documents, Dr Cullinane said she would hold one further preliminary hearing on the issue to see if any problem in that area could be resolved.
Any challenge to any of the parties in the case to any claim of privilege is likely to lead to a High Court challenge which would further delay the proceedings into the death of Mr Molloy.
The coroner ruled earlier this year that gardaí involved in the fatal shooting will be allowed to give evidence anonymously with only the coroner, legal representatives and members of the jury allowed to see their faces.
Mr Molloy was shot by undercover gardaí during the incident when a Group 4 Securicor van pulled up outside the Centra supermarket.
Despite warnings by gardaí to Mr Molloy to drop the sawn-off shotgun he was carrying, he was struck by a bullet fired by a plain-clothed garda after he had fired a shot in the air and was threatening to kill a security man.
Molloy (28) from Lower Sheriff Street in Dublin was a well-known criminal, although he was not considered a major gangland figure by gardaí.
He is one of six individuals to have been killed by gardaí in the line of duty in the past 25 years.
An accomplice of the deceased, Keith Murtagh, was also wounded in the encounter with members of the Garda National Surveillance Unit while four other males were arrested at the scene including Derek “Del Boy” Hutch – a nephew of the well-known Gerry Hutch known as The Monk – who received a 16-year prison sentence for his role in the crime.
His brother, Gareth Hutch, who was murdered as part of the Kinahan-Hutch gangland feud in May 2014, was cleared of charges relating to his role in the attempted robbery.
The criminal gang had been under surveillance for several months by detectives investigating a series of armed cash-in-transit thefts and tiger kidnappings including a €7.6m raid on the Bank of Ireland branch at College Green in February 2009.
At an earlier hearing of the inquest in May 2013, the coroner’s court heard that the DPP had directed that no prosecutions would arise out of a report by GSOC into the fatal shooting.
Criticism was also voiced at a subsequent hearing by GSOC investigators that they were repeatedly refused access to files on the background to the shooting.
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