A garda officer turned a blind eye to vicious beatings a colleague inflicted on his wife despite being shown the bruises, the Morris Tribunal heard today.
Ms Sheenagh McMahon (42) the estranged wife of Mr Noel McMahon, a detective at the centre of allegations of garda corruption, accused Superintendent Kevin Lennonof ignoring violence she suffered at the hands of her husband.
Mrs McMahon said she told Lennon on several occasions of the beatings she received from her husband during their turbulent marriage.
The mother-of-three told the Morris Tribunal she showed the superintendent bruises her husband had inflicted on her, but that he - and other gardai at the station- did nothing about it.
Cross-examining key witness Mrs McMahon for the third day, Supt Lennon accused her of refusing to make a formal statement about the violence.
But Mrs McMahon said he should have helped her - regardless of whether she told him in writing or in person.
"Whether I did or didn't make a statement, you knew," she told Supt Lennon, who is representing himself at the hearing.
"You did know what was going on. Everybody knew, everybody in the Garda station knew ... you knew that everybody knew," she said.
She said that on one occasion, when she could not get into the house because Det McMahon was drunk, Supt Lennon helped her get in and would have seen signs that she had been beaten.
"I had bruises all over me and I showed them to you and you were disgusted," she said.
She added: "What difference does it make if I write it in a pad of paper or if I tell you straight to your face? My God, you're a superintendent for God's sake."
She said that when she told a superintendent that her husband was beating her she expected him to do something about it.
Earlier this week Mrs Mc Mahon gave evidence of how her marriage had broken up, with both herself and Det McMahon receiving hospital treatment after they started drinking.
Mrs McMahon said the relationship began to deteriorate after her husband experienced problems at work and was transferred from Buncrana - where most of the familylived - to Letterkenny.
In her evidence today Mrs McMahon admitted striking her husband but said it was in self-defence to protect her and her family.
"You must realise that I was living in circumstances in the house and I was trying to protect myself and I don't deny for a minute that I have raised my hand to McMahon and I won't deny that in the court," she told the tribunal.
The Morris Tribunal is investigating tha Garda's involvement in terrorist bomb-making, arson, the mystery death of a cattle dealer and a series of arrests, as well as the force's treatment and alleged harassment of theMcBrearty family of Co Donegal.
The current module of the inquiry is dealing solely with allegations from Mrs McMahon that her husband, Supt Lennon and an alleged IRA informer Ms Adrienne McGlinchey mixed explosives in a shed beside her home to be planted andlater discovered in staged terrorist arms finds by the gardai.
Ms McGlinchey's legal team today began their own cross-examination of Mrs McMahon.Her counsel claimed that when Ms McGlinchey warned Mrs McMahon to "watch" for herself and her children it was meant as a friendly gesture rather than a threat. However Mrs McMahon maintained that she perceived the words as a threat.
The tribunal resumes next week.
PA