Watchdog says handling of partner's complaint against ex-garda Paul Moody 'wholly unacceptable'

Paul Moody was jailed for harassing and coercively controlling a partner between 2016 and 2017, including threatening messages about the woman and their unborn baby. The woman complained to the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission in late 2017, but the investigation was discontinued five years later without interviewing Moody. Moody later subjected Nicola Hanney to a similar pattern of abuse between 2017 and 2020 and was jailed again for coercive control. The Police Ombudsman said the handling of the first complaint was wholly unacceptable and that the victim was right to say Hanney could have been spared if the complaint had been taken seriously. The Ombudsman said initiatives have been introduced to mitigate the risk of recurrence and offered to meet the woman.

"The Police Ombudsman has said it is "wholly unacceptable" how the complaint of a woman coercively controlled by Paul Moody was handled before he went on to abuse a new partner. The ex-garda was last week jailed for four years and nine months for harassing and coercively controlling his then partner between 2016 and 2017, which included sending text messages in which Moody said he hoped that the woman and their unborn baby would die. The woman made a complaint to the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (GSOC), now known as Fiosrú, in late 2017 but the watchdog discontinued the investigation five years late without even interviewing Moody (46)."

"His former partner last week told Dublin Circuit Court that "if someone had listened" to her when she made her complaint to GSOC then "Nicola would have been spared". Police Ombudsman Emily Logan today said that the way the complaint was handled was "unacceptable" and that she has written to the woman to offer to meet with her. "I want to be clear to say that what happened to that victim or survivor, however they wish to choose to be called, in this complaint was wholly unacceptable. It was unacceptable, there's no question about that," she told RTÉ's This Week programme."

"Ms Logan added that she completely understands "how that person would feel very let down by that experience". Asked about the victim's comment that Nicola Hanney could have been spared if her complaint had been taken seriously, Ms Logan said she is "absolutely right" and that Fiosrú has introduced a number of initiatives to "mitigate the risk of that ever happening again". "The experience of not being listened to or not being responded to is not acceptable wha"

Read at Irish Independent