Not only had two important documents in the application by Mr Frank Shortt for a certificate that there was a miscarriage of justice in his case not been produced by the State to the Court of Criminal Appeal, other documents presented to the court were "grossly misleading", Mr Justice Hardiman said.
Presiding over the three-judge court, Mr Justice Hardiman said it was unfortunately the case that the two documents in which the term "perjury" was used in relation to the trial which led to Mr Shortt's conviction were not discovered.
One had been produced by a witness while the other had been produced from either Garda or DPP custody.
Last week, Ms Sheena McMahon told the court that she had made a statement to gardaí, dated September 15th, 2000, in which she alleged that her husband, Det Garda Noel McMahon, had told her he perjured himself during Mr Shortt's trial. On Friday, the statement was produced by the State to the court, and the court asked for an explanation for the failure to discover it.
The court was also told by Ms Adrienne McGlinchey that she had made a statement about making tape-recordings of conversations with gardaí in relation to the Point Inn.
Yesterday, Mr Edward Comyn SC, for the DPP, told the court that a copy of Ms McMahon's statement had been sent to the DPP's office on October 31st, 2001. This was prior to the quashing of Mr Shortt's conviction in November, 2001.
Mr Comyn said that he did not know the full circumstances of how the document had been "sidelined". The statement had been taken by Insp Hugh Coll, of the Carty team. Counsel said that he did not know in what capacity it had been taken, as theCarty report had been submitted before the time the statement was taken. The failure to produce the document at the outset of the hearing was an "oversight".
Mr Comyn said he had very clear instructions to be open with the court and to provide all assistance required. A phenomenal amount of documents were involved, more than 1,000. There had been mistakes, but he was instructed that none of these were in bad faith. Senior members of the Garda shared the same anxiety as the DPP that nothing be withheld and were very concerned that the media were suggesting that they themselves were corrupt and not handling the matter properly.