A British police force would have set dogs on Mr John Carthy before he reached the public road carrying his loaded shotgun, a British police-dog specialist has told the Barr tribunal. Olivia Kelly reports.
Had the Abbeylara siege taken place in the UK, Mr Carthy would not have been allowed to walk from his house, through his garden and on to the road without being confronted by a police dog, said Sgt David Lee, a British Home Office police dog instructor.
Two firearms dogs and two general purpose dogs would have been deployed to a similar firearms incident if it occurred in West Mercia Constabulary where Sgt Lee is stationed, he said.
No dogs were brought to Abbeylara by gardaí at any time during the 25-hour siege.
"We would have deployed the dog when the suspect was halfway between the house and the garden wall. At the very latest I would expect the dog to be deployed as the suspect was about to enter the road from the driveway," Sgt Lee said.
Dogs had contributed to a peaceful solution in a number of sieges in the UK. They were used to get the subject to comply with police instructions and were effective at containing the subject within a cordon, Sgt Lee said.
Counsel for the Garda Commissioner, Mr Cian Ferriter, put it to Sgt Lee that there might be a cultural antipathy to setting dogs on people.
"If I was a relative of the man who had a problem and was in a situation with a firearm, I would prefer for him to be bitten and in custody rather than being shot and being killed," Sgt Lee replied.
Counsel for the Garda, Mr John Rogers, said the introduction of dogs to the Abbeylara siege could have brought an element of "uncertainty and unpredictability". Mr Carthy would have seen the dogs as a threat, and this would have deterred him from leaving the house peaceably.
"With a mentally ill person who was behaving erratically and being unpredictable in his actions, the presence of the dogs would leave him without the option to come out," he said.
There was not really a role for a dog at the Abbeylara incident. "The best that can be expected is that the dog would become a target."
Sgt Lee said there was that possibility, but he could not say what was in the mind of a mentally ill person.