A Donegal garda has been asked why he conducted a "half-baked" examination of a find of suspected homemade explosives materials at the flat of an alleged IRA informer, located within five minutes' walk of the local Garda station in Buncrana a decade ago.
Sgt Michael Murray was scene of crimes officer called to the flat of the alleged informer, Letterkenny woman Ms Adrienne McGlinchey, after a quantity of ground fertiliser and other material was discovered at her flat following a report from her landlord after he called to fix a leak.
Sgt Murray told the tribunal he did not take fingerprints from the plastic bags of fertiliser he recovered, as he was told by another garda, Sgt Des Walsh, that the scene had been contaminated.
"I knew the scene hadn't been preserved," he told the Morris tribunal chairman, Mr Justice Frederick Morris.
"The scene was flawed. Sgt Walsh told me." The judge wondered why Sgt Murray had conducted "a half-baked examination of the scene". He asked: "Why didn't you do it properly then?"
Sgt Murray said, "The materials were still there to be pro-cessed if they were required. I retained them."
Sgt Murray disputed the evidence of other gardaí, who said fertiliser was stored in Ms McGlinchey's bedroom. He said the material he recovered was in the bathroom of the flat. "I never saw any bags of fertiliser in a bedroom," he said.
In total, Sgt Murray said he took 41 samples of material from the scene, which were sent for analysis.
He said he was told by Sgt Walsh six months after the search, in autumn 1994, that there would be no prosecution. "He intimated the case was going nowhere, to protect Ms McGlinchey." As a result Sgt Murray did not retain his notes on the scene of crime examination.