The former GSOC officer at the centre of a Garda probe into his attendance at a party for Gerry Hutch is believed to have left Ireland.
Sources told The Star the senior investigator, who immediately retired from GSOC when the party allegations emerged, is believed to have flown abroad. It’s understood the man, who has been cooperating with the probe, returned to a jurisdiction where he served as a cop for over 30 years before coming to Ireland to take up the GSOC role.
The National Bureau of Criminal Investigation are probing whether the investigator, who has since admitted attending a ‘welcome home’ party for Hutch on the day of his acquittal of the murder of David Byrne, was illegally leaking information. After we exclusively broke the story that the officer attended the party in north Dublin in April, GSOC launched an internal investigation, then called on gardai to launch their own probe.
Within days the investigator, who had retired once the allegation surfaced, was arrested. It is understood he claimed that he went inside the house for a few moments while waiting to pick someone else up from the property.
Read more: Jonathan Dowdall will spend life 'looking over his shoulder' after Hutch trial
It also emerged the officer at the time was living in a house just a few doors up from where Hutch resided. It’s understood he insisted to gardai that he had done nothing wrong.
This man was heading up GSOC’s investigation into the death of Detective Supt Colm Fox – who was the lead investigator into the murder of David Byrne at the Regency. Det Supt Fox died in a tragedy at Ballymun Garda Station in 2019.
After it emerged that the GSOC officer attended the Hutch party, concerns were raised over his access to the Regency murder probe file.
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