Morris Tribunal: A Letterkenny man yesterday told the Morris tribunal he was asked to store two walkie-talkie radios in a shed for the brothers of the flatmate of an alleged informer who claims she fabricated explosives finds for two Donegal gardaí.
Mr John Kelly told the tribunal he was approached by Pearse and John Devine, who asked him if he would hold on to the radios and a charger.
Their sister, Ms Yvonne Devine, was at the time the flatmate of alleged informer Ms Adrienne McGlinchey, whose allegations that she, along with detective Noel McMahon and Supt Kevin Lennon, prepared explosives for subsequent use in bogus garda arms finds, form the basis for the current module of the tribunal.
The two officers have both denied the claims.
On September 8th, 1992, Letterkenny fire station received a hoax telephone call, and firemen left the station open as they responded.
On their return, they discovered two Motorola MX 1000 walkie-talkies were missing.
Mr Kelly told the tribunal he brought the Devine brothers to a shed and the walkie-talkies and a charger were stored there.
Four or five days later, the brothers returned and removed them again.
"I didn't ask any questions," said Mr Kelly. A few weeks later he was "hauled in for six hours and questioned" on suspicion of the burglary by local gardaí.
However, Mr Kelly denied that the Devines had bought the walkie-talkies from him.
"I wasn't long out of prison at that time I didn't want to go back."
He said he had once sold them a CB radio, but had only held the walkie-talkies for them.
Two weeks after the theft at the fire station, Ms McGlinchey was arrested in possession of the radios and a charger, but no charges were ever brought.
Mr Kelly, who had to return to Donegal for personal reason last night, will be recalled to the stand in two weeks after legal representatives for the Devines receive instructions from their clients.
The tribunal spent most of yesterday hearing evidence in closed session from former head of the Letterkenny district of An Garda Síochána, Supt John Fitzgerald.
Supt Fitzgerald was giving evidence about C77s, garda forms detailing subversive activity, which the Garda Commissioner has deemed confidential.