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‘Peeping Tom’ garda jailed for spying on colleagues in dressing room worked on sex crimes

Cop is sentenced to a year in prison for spying on colleagues

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A peeping tom garda jailed for a year for spying on female colleagues as they got changed in the station dressing room had previously worked on a number of sex crime cases.

Shamed garda Michael Mannion handed in commendations he received for his work on these cases at his sentencing hearing last week, in a bid to secure a reduced sentence for his behaviour.

But these efforts failed when Judge Marie Keane said the commendations showed that Mannion, having worked on cases of this nature, should have been acutely aware of the impact his behaviour would have on his victims.

“I note in relation to the commendations handed into court,” Judge Keane said, “two of them relate to matters relating to sexual offences.

“That demonstrates very clearly that Garda Mannion has more than an awareness, as all members of An Garda Síochána have, as to what is involved in the investigation of crimes associated with all forms of sexual deviance.

“Garda Mannion has brought great shame to his immediate family and extended family.

“He’s lost his status within the community and it’s also likely he will not continue to have employment within An Garda Síochána.”

The Sunday World reported, as we published the first pictures of the now suspended garda, how the 41-year-old had climbed on to a railing outside Clifden Garda Station so he could spy on female colleagues as they changed in the women’s dressing room.

Although Mannion was only charged with two counts of harassment, the court heard how during a trawl of 2,800 hours of CCTV harvested from cameras at Clifden Garda Station, investigators discovered Mannion had spied on his two female colleagues as they changed on six separate occasions.

The court also heard how a month before Mannion was stopped for good, after he was caught peeping in on Garda Aideen Hughes, he had been discovered spying on Sergeant Patricia Grady.

Sgt Grady didn’t report this at the time after Mannion swore ‘black and blue’ to her it was the first time he’d ever done it and begged her to think about the effect exposing him would have on his wife and two small children.

In her victim impact statement, Sgt Grady told the court she was devastated when she learned Mannion’s offending wasn’t just a once off and had, in fact, occurred on six separate occasions.

She was the target of Mannion’s peeping activities on four occasions while Garda Hughes was targeted twice.

Outlining the facts of the case to prosecutor Patrick Reynolds BL, Det Inspector Kieran Hanley said the matter had first come to light on November 23, 2019, when Garda Aideen Hughes spotted Mannion spying in the dressing room window as she changed at the end of her shift.

He agreed that 20 minutes before the end of her shift, Garda Hughes received a phone call from Mannion offering to cover the remainder of her shift if she wanted to leave early.

The court heard: “She then went into the female changing room where she spotted Garda Mannion looking in the window.

“She reported the matter to her line sergeant. It then transpired Sgt Patricia Grady had a very similar experience on the 13th of September, 2019.

“She arrived up at work shortly before 10am, as was her normal behaviour, and she went into the female changing room to change into her uniform when she saw Garda Mannion looking in the window. She dealt with the matter at the time by herself and she decided not to report it further.

“She was assured by Garda Mannion that it was a one-off but when it transpired that Garda Hughes made a complaint, Sgt Grady came forward.”

Det Insp Hanley said: “An investigation was set up and involved the harvesting of 2,800 hours of CCTV footage and as a result of that, six different incidents were identified.”

The court heard the incidents happened over a period stretching from August 8, 2019, to November 23, 2019, where Sgt Grady was targeted on four occasions and Garda Hughes twice.

Imposing concurrent sentences of six months in prison on each of the two charges of harassment, Judge Marie Keane said Garda Mannion was unlikely to ever be allowed to work as a garda again.