A High Court decision yesterday means that transcripts of the proceedings of the Burnfoot module of the Morris tribunal which were taken in private will now be given to a detective sergeant in advance of his trial.
The trial of Det Sgt John White, with an address at Ballybofey, Co Donegal, is to go ahead at Letterkenny Circuit Court next month and the High Court yesterday paved the way for the handing over to Sgt White of the transcripts of the Burnfoot module.
Last March the High Court refused to grant an order preventing the trial of Sgt White on a charge of planting a firearm six years ago at a Travellers' campsite in Co Donegal in order for it to be found later by gardaí.
It is alleged Sgt White handled a double-barrelled sawn-off shotgun for unlawful purposes, and that he, while in the company of Det Garda Thomas Kilcoyne, placed the shotgun at a campsite near Burnfoot on May 22nd, 1998 so that it could be discovered by the gardaí in a subsequent search.
Sgt White, who has denied the charge, had claimed he could not get a fair trial because material evidence was not preserved by gardaí and was lost.
In the High Court yesterday, John Whelan SC, for Sgt White, said the transcripts being sought related to the first part of the Morris tribunal module. He asked the court to direct the release of the transcripts from the private sessions. The transcripts could be used in testing the credibility of witnesses, he said.
Counsel for the tribunal, Peter Charleton SC, said the application related to transcripts that are secret. He asked that the tribunal be released from its undertaking to the High Court on a previous date not to release any of the documents in relation to the module until after the trial of Sgt White.
The DPP had asked for that section of the module be held in private.
The tribunal was quite happy to release any transcripts from the ordinary hearings held in private, but it could and would not release any material relating to a restricted hearing in relation to informers. The tribunal had agreed with certain parties that the hearings would take place and the transcripts would be destroyed at the end.
Paul O'Higgins SC, for the Minister for Justice, said it was not within the court's jurisdiction to make an order directing the tribunal to release the transcripts.
Mr Justice Iarfhlaith O'Neill said he would release the tribunal from its undertaking.