- Available for Confidential Consultations
This is written for the person it is happening to, and for the family member reading it in a car park outside a station.
Ask for a solicitor. Say it out loud, before any questioning starts, and say it again if nothing happens.
You do not have to explain why you want one. Asking for a solicitor is not an admission of anything and it is not held against you.
Do not talk about the allegation until you have spoken to a solicitor privately.
That includes conversations that do not feel like an interview. It includes the corridor, the car, and the custody desk. If you are asked something and you are not sure, say you would rather wait for your solicitor.
If you do not understand what is being alleged, say so and ask again. People frequently nod through an explanation they have not followed because they are frightened.
You are brought to a station and detained under a specific statutory power. The member in charge records the detention and your rights are explained to you.
You wait. This is the part nobody warns you about. There is often a long gap before anything happens, and that wait is when people talk themselves into explaining.
Your solicitor arrives and speaks to you privately. This is the important part of the whole process.
You are interviewed. Recorded, cautioned, with your solicitor present if you have asked for one.
You are released or charged. Released without charge, released pending a file going to the Director of Public Prosecutions, or charged and brought before the District Court.
Being released without charge does not mean the matter is closed. Files go to the Director of Public Prosecutions regularly, and a decision can come months later.
If you have been interviewed and released, write down what you were asked and what you said while it is fresh, and keep your solicitor's details.
You can ring a solicitor on someone else's behalf. You do not need their permission first and you do not need to know much.
Have the station name and the person's name ready. That is enough to start.
Do not ring the station and try to explain the situation yourself. It rarely helps and it can create a record you did not intend.
If the Gardaí have asked you to attend rather than arresting you, everything above still applies. A voluntary interview is still an interview and what you say can be used.
Take advice before you go in, not after you come out.
We act for people accused of sexual offences and we attend Garda stations across Ireland at any hour.
If someone is in a station now, phone rather than email.
Ask for a solicitor, before any questioning starts. You do not have to give a reason. Then say nothing about the allegation until you have spoken to one privately.
It depends on the power under which you are detained and the offence involved. You are entitled to be told what that power is, and a solicitor can check how long it lawfully allows.
You are generally entitled to have someone notified of your detention. Ask the member in charge.
