The suspended Garda superintendent at the centre of allegations that bogus arms finds were planted in Donegal a decade ago was yesterday asked to explain why he exposed an alleged informer to "appalling risks" by not returning to her subversive paraphernalia which she was to deliver to a prominent IRA man in north Donegal.
Supt Kevin Lennon said he took the risk because a second item, a mortar-type device, was returned, and he felt the alleged informer, Ms Adrienne McGlinchey, would be able to explain losing one. He said the metal item was retained so it could be compared against future finds of IRA arsenals.
Supt Lennon said Det Noel McMahon brought the two mortar-type devices to him sometime in September 1993. The detective told him these were a new type of device obtained from Ms McGlinchey, and had been given to her by the Derry IRA man to deliver to another Provisional in Rahan, Letterkenny.
Det McMahon said the items had to be returned within two hours. Supt Lennon, then an inspector supervising Det McMahon's handling of Ms McGlinchey, gave one of these items back to Det McMahon, who took the other to Derry, where he showed it to the RUC's Det Insp Donnelly. However, the RUC man could identify no purpose for the items. Following this, Supt Lennon brought the item to the Border superintendent Det Supt Denis FitzPatrick.
Supt Lennon told the tribunal he was not worried about Ms McGlinchey's safety as she had one of the objects, and would be able to persuade the IRA she had lost or mislaid the other one. A week or so later, Det Supt FitzPatrick got back to him to say he had shown the item to the British army, and "it was nothing".
Supt Lennon said that when he told Carty investigators he had not returned any item to Det McMahon, he "had not had the benefit of checking his notes".
"I can assure you, sir, I did not instigate the making of that item, or provide any parts or participate in the making of it," he said.
Ms McGlinchey alleges Supt Lennon and Det McMahon prepared explosives that later turned up in bogus Garda arms finds. Both Det McMahon and Supt Lennon have denied the claims, and Ms McGlinchey has persistently maintained that she was never a member of the IRA or had an informer's role.
The superintendent was appointed to supervise Det McMahon and Ms McGlinchey following a memo written by Det Supt FitzPatrick. In the memo he expressed his concerns about difficulties in handling Ms McGlinchey, who was drawing unnecessary attention to herself.
"Her security was being compromised, she was talking to too many people," Supt Lennon said. "She was inclined to talk to too many members of the force."
Supt Lennon said he asked Ms McGlinchey who her IRA contacts were, and she named two men and a woman from Letterkenny, and a man from Derry.
Tribunal barrister Mr Peter Charleton SC said the man from Derry hadn't been heard of for 20 years, and the others were well known in the locality.
"So she gives you a couple of prominent names, and a man from Derry who hasn't been heard of for 20 years. Am I wrong in thinking these people would be well known?"
"They would be well known, yes," Supt Lennon said.