The Morris Tribunal: The estranged wife of Det Garda Noel McMahon told the tribunal in Dublin yesterday Supt Kevin Lennon had known that her husband was beating her but he and other gardaí stood back and let it continue.
Ms Sheenagh McMahon said she had bruises all over her. Everybody in town knew and everybody in the Garda station knew.
Ms McMahon was cross-examined yesterday by Supt Lennon, who is representing himself at the tribunal.
Supt Lennon said Ms McMahon stated he had told her husband there was an organisation for battered husbands in Donegal town.
Ms McMahon said her husband told her and she believed it. There was such an organisation.
Supt Lennon asked if she would accept he had no knowledge of that.
She replied that she had no idea what he had knowledge of, but her husband had been positive about it. She admitted she had struck her husband with a brush at one point.
"You must realise that I was living in circumstances where I was trying to protect myself and I don't deny for a moment that I raised my hand and struck my husband in self-defence to protect myself and my children."
Ms McMahon said Supt Lennon knew about that because his wife was there and bandaged Mr McMahon's hand.
"You knew I struck him, so why wouldn't you say to him to go to the organisation for battered husbands. You never told me to go for help for domestic violence," she added.
Supt Lennon said she had refused to make statements about domestic violence.
"Everybody in town and in the Garda station knew. I had bruises all over me and when you saw them you were disgusted with Noel McMahon," Ms McMahon asserted.
She said the Lennons had let her stay in their house that night. Supt Lennon should have gone to get her husband and said something. "As far as I'm concerned you and other gardaí stood back and allowed it to go on and on," Ms McMahon said.
Supt Lennon asked: "Do you accept that in terms of a person's health, the health of an individual is his own problem?" She replied: "I was talking to a superintendent and I'm telling you my husband's beating me. I was unwell, Noel was unwell, we both drank too much, there was domestic violence and you knew it."
Supt Lennon said she had refused to make statements.
Ms McMahon: "What was the difference if I wrote it on a piece of paper. You were a superintendent in the gardaí, for God's sake."
She said her father had asked Supt Lennon to take guns out of her house. Her father had told him that Mr McMahon was "going off his rocker" and asked that the two guns be removed.
Supt Lennon said he removed the guns of his own volition.
Mr Justice Morris said: "As I understand it, the witness is saying: 'You were a superintendent of the gardaí, I was making positive complaints to you and you did nothing about it'."
Ms McMahon was also cross-examined by Mr Paul Murray, counsel for Ms Adrienne McGlinchey.
Ms McMahon said she was threatened by Ms McGlinchey, who had told her she should watch herself and her children. Ms McGlinchey was aggressive.
Mr Murray said Ms McGlinchey would say she was only giving friendly advice. His client would also say she had never been a member of the IRA and was not an informer.