MAZE PRISON escapee Brendan “Bik” McFarlane allegedly told gardaí that he was at a wood in Co Leitrim where kidnapped supermarket executive Don Tidey was held, the Special Criminal Court was told yesterday.
Mr McFarlane allegedly said to detectives: “I was there. You can prove that but I will not talk about it.” Later, gardaí claim, he also said: “I am prepared for the big one.”
When asked if he meant murder, he replied: “I am prepared for the worst.”
Retired detective garda Bernie Hanley told the court that Mr McFarlane remained silent when questioned at Dundalk Garda station in January 1998 about his fingerprints being found on items in Derrada Wood in Co Leitrim where Mr Tidey was held.
The court is hearing a “trial within a trial” to decide on the legality of the arrest and detention of Mr McFarlane and on the admissibility of alleged statements made while in custody in January 1998.
Mr Hanley was giving evidence on the sixth day of the trial of Mr McFarlane (56), a father of three from Jamaica Street, Belfast.
He has pleaded not guilty to falsely imprisoning Mr Tidey between November 24th and December 16th, 1983, and denies possession of a firearm at Derrada Wood, Drumcroman, Ballinamore, Co Leitrim, between November 25th and December 16th, 1983.
In a later interview Mr McFarlane made no reply when he was asked if he had been in Derrada Wood when recruit Garda Gary Sheehan and Pte Patrick Kelly were shot.
Cross-examined by Mr McFarlane’s counsel Hugh Hartnett SC, Mr Hanley admitted that he had been involved in a number of “controversial” cases and that he had been criticised by the Special Criminal Court over his role in the Paul Ward and John Gilligan cases.