The Police Ombudsman has accepted its investigation into a complaint by a victim against former garda and violent abuser of women Paul Moody "faced delays", but has not apologised.
The victim told the Circuit Criminal Court that had GSOC, as the ombudsman was known in 2017, acted when she made the complaint, Moody could have been stopped from abusing a subsequent victim, Nicola Hanney.
The woman said she faced "a wall of silence" from ombudsman, which she said did nothing about her case and described this as "neglect" and "a betrayal of trust".
Fiosrú, as the ombudsman is now called, said in a statement that its "delays" were "as a result of Covid", but Women's Aid pointed out this morning that the woman made her complaint in 2017, three years before the pandemic was declared in Ireland.
Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, Women's Aid CEO Sarah Benson said it was very hard to understand how a report made to GSOC in 2017 was not concluded until 2023, when GSOC said it "discontinued" the case.
The Garda National Bureau of Criminal Investigation took it over after its officers discovered letters from GSOC in Moody's home, which led to Moody’s conviction and jailing for four years and nine months yesterday.
Fiosrú said this morning that it carried out "an internal review" of its investigation and an "external review of its wider organisational practices and procedures", but has not published any further details, findings or recommendations in relation to these "reviews".
The Police Ombudsman has not made a spokesperson available for comment.
Fiosrú also said that it had "engaged with the victim" but the woman pointed out in court that it only contacted her on the day Moody was convicted of coercively controlling his other victim, Nicola Hanney in 2022, following the first garda investigation into his criminality.
The woman described this contact as "a sledgehammer" and told the ombudsman that "if someone had listened in 2017, Nicola would have been spared".
