Austin Stack to quiz Garda chief on IRA murder of his father

The family of murdered Irish Prison Officer, Brian Stack, will meet with Garda Commissioner Drew Harris at Garda HQ on Wednesday morning.

Mr Stack was shot by the IRA in 1983.

The Irish National Bureau of Criminal Investigation completed a review of the murder which was handed over to the Garda Commissioner in January, Mr Stack’s son Austin said.

Although the Stacks have not yet seen the report, a previous report by the Serious Crime Review Team identified 194 errors in the original investigation, he said.

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The family will again be asking why evidence went “missing” and witnesses were not interviewed, he said.

Mr Stack said they would also ask why critical intelligence which he said was passed to the Gardaí in 1990 was not acted upon, and when this intelligence was again passed to the current investigation team it was again, he claimed, suppressed until the family became aware of it.

The family will also ask, he said, why the two key suspects remained “seemingly unknown to the investigation team” until the family received credible information from three unconnected sources naming them.

He also asked why the Gardaí have apparently not been able to locate one of these individuals, despite information provided by the family which significantly narrowed down his location and living circumstances.

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Mr Stack also believes the Crime & Security section of the Gardaí have not co-operated fully with the investigation.

And he claimed that a senior high profile republican was only interviewed very recently and in what appears to be a “very choreographed interview”.

He questioned why the former so-called ‘Officer Commanding’ of the Dublin IRA was apparently never interviewed following his extradition back to The Republic of Ireland on an unrelated matter, despite him previously placing himself at the scene of the crime while being interviewed by Gardaí.

“The family will be eager to see what the most recent report contains, they will also be again seeking a full copy of the Serious Crime Review Team Report which identified the 194 errors in the original investigation,” he said.

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The Stacks will also be keen to hear Mr Harris’ response to their claims that three separate Garda investigations have been “uncooperative”.

He added: “The family await to see if the Commissioner will formally apologise for the way this case has been handled by his organisation since 1983.”