A detective sergeant had told the trial of a colleague, charged with planting a firearm on a Traveller's encampment in north Donegal, that he did not ask for and was not offered immunity from prosecution in return for his statements and evidence.
Det Sgt Thomas Kilcoyne told the trial in Letterkenny Circuit Court he saw Det Sgt John White planting a double barrelled sawn- off shotgun at the campsite near Burnfoot in May 1998.
Three months later, he requested a transfer from Det Sgt White's unit, where he was a detective garda at the time, without giving a reason.
He said he twice confided in part about what he had seen with another colleague, Det Garda Joseph Foley, in the following year, and with his wife in early 2000.
The sergeant said he was asked by Insp Michael Keane to come in to his office in June 2001, where he met Chief Supt (now assistant commissioner) Ignatius Rice, who asked him had he "anything to do with the planting of a gun at Burnfoot", but did not mention Sgt White.
Sgt Kilcoyne told the officers how he had been with Det Sgt White when he obtained a shotgun, test-fired it and brought it to Burnfoot in 1998, and agreed to make a statement later that night to a member of the Carty team. He did not seek legal advice or speak to a GRA representative, but "took my own counsel".
"I think if I had lawyered up or GRAed up, I would have a section 29 warrant on my own house, and I did not want to bring that on me," he said.
Det Sgt White was arrested six days after Det Kilcoyne's statement and he said he expected to be arrested too.
Barrister Damien Crawford said while Det Sgt White was arrested "in the glare of publicity", senior gardaí were in the office of the Director pf Public Prosecutions seeking immunity for Det Kilcoyne.
The detective said no immunity was offered to him and "and if there was any inducement given to me or any promise made to me, I wouldn't believe it, because I wouldn't believe it was in Chief Supt Rice's gift to make it."
It was not until 2005 he first became aware that the DPP had granted him immunity from prosecution, as a result of disclosures made to the Morris tribunal.
"I was admitting the offence, he wasn't. That was the difference," Sgt Kilcoyne said.
Mr Crawford said Det Sgt White was "hugely unpopular" because he was part of a team that investigated the death of cattle-dealer Richie Barron and recommended no prosecution because a purported confession was unsafe.