A Donegal garda detective accused of planning bogus explosives finds a decade ago was "prepared to lie about anything when caught out", it was alleged at the Morris tribunal yesterday.
Mr Paul Murray BL said that in contrast his client, Ms Adrienne McGlinchey, has been consistent in her account of a "charade" interrogation at Burnfoot Garda station following a discovery of suspected explosives in her Buncrana flat in March 1994.
The "managing explosives" module of the inquiry, now in its closing stages, examined allegations by alleged IRA informer Ms McGlinchey that two gardaí, Supt Kevin Lennon and Det Noel McMahon, manufactured bogus IRA explosives finds in Donegal a decade ago. Both deny the allegations, and Ms McGlinchey denies she was ever an informer or a member of the IRA.
"She had to be taken to Burnfoot Garda station to get her away from other gardaí," Mr Murray said, "so that Kevin Lennon and Noel McMahon could protect her in circumstances where fertiliser in which they had an involvement had been inadvertently found in her flat. Ms McGlinchey's account of what transpired on this occasion has slowly but surely been vindicated during the course of the tribunal."
The "charade" was necessary in case Ms McGlinchey might reveal what was going on to other gardaí, he said.
Mr Murray also said senior gardaí were "conditioned" to expect a major find before the disputed explosives discovery near Rossnowlagh in July 1994.
Ms McGlinchey's simple account was one of "placement of materials in which Noel McMahon and Kevin Lennon fully participated," he said.
In contrast, Mr Murray said that if Det McMahon and Supt Lennon were telling the truth, they would not have given inconsistent accounts of the affair. "Such inconsistencies, however, allied to the oddities of the find itself, all point to Ms McGlinchey's account to the tribunal being the correct one, with the Garda authorities being 'conditioned' beforehand by Kevin Lennon to expect a find on foot of intelligence," Mr Murray stated.