Former Garda jailed for inciting rape of colleague to admit leaking data on 14 individuals

Gordon Deegan

A former Garda jailed in July for inciting strangers to rape a colleague is to plead guilty to the unauthorised disclosure of Garda PULSE personal data on 14 individuals.

At Ennis Circuit Court on Tuesday, Judge Francis Comerford said that Shane Flanagan (39), with an address in Ennis, Co Clare, has indicated that he intends to plead guilty to charges before the court.

Counsel for the State, Sarah-Jane Comerford BL, confirmed that this is the case, stating that Mr Flanagan’s instructing solicitor has been in correspondence with the State Solicitor for Clare, Aisling Casey “to say that guilty pleas are forthcoming”.

Ms Comerford said: "These are serious charges."

The case against Mr Flanagan - who resigned from the force in March - was listed for trial and the trial is not now to proceed following the indication of guilty pleas.

Mr Flanagan was brought by Irish Prison Service personnel from his prison on Tuesday to be arraigned on the PULSE charges before the court.

However, the arraignment could not proceed after no solicitor or barrister appeared on Mr Flanagan’s behalf.

Mr Flanagan told the court that he spoke to his solicitor last Friday.

Assisting the court, Aaron Desmond BL said that Mr Flanagan did not seek legal aid in the district court “but since then Mr Flanagan’s circumstances have changed and he is serving a lengthy prison term of seven years in prison”.

Judge Comerford granted legal aid for solicitor, Martin Cosgrove and two barristers to represent Mr Flanagan and adjourned the case to Thursday for Mr Flanagan to be arraigned.

Judge Comerford said: “His lawyers should be here. I don’t want to hear excuses on Thursday and I am not going to keep putting it back and back and back."

In the case, Shane Flanagan is facing 14 separate counts of disclosing personal data on the Garda PULSE Information system to another person on dates between January 12th, 2020, to September 24th, 2020.

The charges relate to Mr Flanagan disclosing the personal data without authorisation from the Garda PULSE system to another person of 14 separate individuals and only their initials are provided on the charges in order to protect their identity.

The individuals' initials are listed as LL, FS, LMc, RN, SH, DC, WS, LG, GL, NC, KR, KD, DD, and IS.

Mr Flanagan is charged under the Data Protection Act.

At the Central Criminal Court at the end of July, Ms Justice Eileen Creedon sentenced Mr Flanagan to eight years in prison and suspended the final year.

The court heard that Mr Flanagan impersonated a female colleague online and encouraged strangers to come to her house to rape her and her young daughters.

Ms Justice Eileen Creedon said that Shane Flanagan showed a breathtaking disregard for the safety of his victims.

Mr Flanagan admitted two counts of inciting two men to rape the woman, who had been a friend, on dates between November and December 2020.

Flanagan also admitted six counts of endangering the woman and her teenage daughters through his communications online and he pleaded guilty to possessing four images of child sexual abuse material.

The court heard that Flanagan and the woman were both serving members of An Garda Síochána at the time. They were friends but had never had a romantic or intimate relationship.