If every garda had strictly adhered to the force's manual on interrogation techniques, the detection rate would be a quarter of what it is at the moment, Det Sgt John White said yesterday.
Det Sgt White said he was told by senior officers in the early 1980s that interrogations should be hard and tough. However, when new rules and regulations came in in 1987, nobody said they had to change their ways and senior officers did not regard the rules as cast in stone.
Michael Durack SC, for the Garda Commissioner and senior officers, said regulations required that statements from suspects should be obtained voluntarily and people in custody should be treated with respect.
Det Sgt White said: "If every member of An Garda Síochána had adhered strictly to those regulations the detection rate would be a quarter of what it is at the moment." He said he was not talking about the past six years, since he was not working. He was told how to deal with suspects in the 1980s.
"During that time the main purpose always was the detection rate and statistics to get it up and to keep everybody, the Commissioner first, then the Government, happy," he said.
Det Sgt White said it was not general to the police force, it had been mostly to do with detective branches in Dublin, the then murder squad, central detective unit. Mr Durack said the manual on crime investigation techniques was first published in 1979 and the second edition was in 1994.
Det Sgt White said: "I was never told that the book there was the bible I had to adhere to. I was told by senior officers that the interrogations were to be hard, tough interrogations." When new rules and regulations came in, in 1987, no one came along and said they had to change their ways, he said. "Senior officers didn't view these as new rules that couldn't be broken, that they were cast in stone and that from now on nobody says a word to a prisoner or raises their voice to a prisoner or does anything else in that line," he said. The chairman asked if he effectively ignored the regulations.
Det Sgt White said on serious crime that there was no great importance put on the regulations by senior officers or anybody else. The situation modified during the 1990s. Mr Durack said only a voluntary statement could be admitted in evidence and could not be influenced by fear, threat or inducement.
Det Sgt White said: "Technically, according to the book, yes, common sense and procedure in the real world, no." In relation to mistreatment of Katrina Brolly and Róisín McConnell when they were arrested in 1996 in connection with Richie Barron's death, he said: "I did what I did as I was used to doing over the years and it shouldn't have happened."