Retired Sligo garda John Nicholson forged signatures on earning certificates, and a deceased garda, whom he implicated, had nothing to do with any forgery, a forensic handwriting expert said yesterday.
John Nash gave evidence after the widow of deceased garda John Keogh testified to defend her husband's name. Mr Nash said he studied seven forged certificates and concluded they had been written by at least four people.
Mr Nicholson, who pleaded guilty in court and was prosecuted for submitting false certificates in 2002, has denied he forged them and had implicated garda Keogh in the forgeries when he gave evidence at the tribunal.
The certificates for loss of earnings were for Bernard Conlon, who was claiming expenses for court appearances in Letterkenny in a licensing case against the McBreartys.
Mr Nash said he compared samples of handwriting of the late garda Keogh and of Mr Nicholson. He said on four of the certificates the body of the note purporting to be from Mr Conlon's employer was written by the same person. The signatures were by another person.
He said he compared samples of garda Keogh's handwriting on birthday cards, personal books and documents.
"I compared all the certificates of earnings. I was unable to connect him with any of this handwriting including the signatures on these documents. He's unlikely to have been involved, in my opinion. On balance, there is no handwriting evidence to connect garda Keogh with this. I'm satisfied on the balance of probabilities he's not involved."
The chairman asked if that opinion applied to all the certificates. Mr Nash replied: "I can't connect him with any. It's unlikely he was involved."
He said he had studied documents containing Mr Nicholson's writing, particularly of his signing the name of the employer Ben Maguire in samples. He compared all seven certificates.
He found common elements in the signature in four of the documents. "In my opinion, while there may have been some attempt at the beginning of these questioned signatures, they generally are in the natural writing of the author and, on the balance of probabilities, the author of these signatures, John Nicholson, wrote the four questioned signatures and it's unlikely anybody else was involved," he added.
Paul McDermott SC, for the tribunal, asked: "So your conclusion is that Mr Nicholson essentially forged the name Ben Maguire on four Bernard Conlon certificates?"
Mr Nash said: "That would be correct, my lord. He would have written those."
Mr McDermott said Mr Nash also concluded that the late garda Keogh had nothing to do with any forgery. "There was no evidence to connect garda Keogh with any signatures or the body of the writing on these documents," Mr Nash said.
On the three other documents, Mr Nash said one was a faxed copy so he could not examine the writing in detail. However, it was probably written by the same person who wrote the body of the four others.
In the remaining two, one had a different author. The body of the second was by another person, with possibly another signing it.