Whistleblower Wilson loses High Court action

Paul Neilan

Whistleblower and local election possible John Wilson has lost his High Court action challenging a ruling that he breached garda regulations and neglected his duty.
The Cavanman and retired garda was sanctioned after he attended at a Virginia courthouse in 2012 while he was off duty.
The High Court ruled that Garda chiefs were entitled to ask Mr Wilson for an explanation as to why he sat beside the defendants during a court case while off duty.
Judge Iseult O’Malley noted that the trial involved a long-running dispute between neighbours in an estate in Virgina and that his attendance could impinge ‘upon the public perception of the force as a whole’, The Irish Examiner reports.
She found that Mr Wilson should have ‘at least explained that his private life was at issue but instead he suggested a degree of bad faith by asking what was being insinuated about him,’ the paper states.

The retired garda gave a limited response to questions outside court on the basis that a further legal application may be made.
As a whistleblower in the penalty points scandal Mr Wilson brought the termination of certain individuals’ penalty points by garda hierarchy.
He recently received an apology from Justice Minister Alan Shatter over remarks made in the Dáil that he had not been co-operative in an investigation into the matter.
On Wednesday, he received a rousing reception in Blacklion after being interviewed by Pat Kenny for an outside broadcast in MacNean’s Restaurant owned by celebrated chef Neven Maguire.
At the event he told The Anglo-Celt that he was to make a final decision on whether or not he was definitely running as an independent candidate in the Cavan-Belturbet local