The former head of Garda intelligence told a court today that he would have arrested former IRA leader Brendan “Bik” Mc Farlane for the kidnap of supermarket executive Don Tidey if had come face to face with him.
Assistant Commissioner Dermot Jennings told the Special Criminal Court that he had received confidential information in January 1998 that Mr McFarlane was travelling on a bus from Dublin to Belfast but he claimed privilege and refused to reveal the source of that information.
Mr Jennings, who at the time was the Detective Chief Superintendent in charge of the Security and Intelligence Section at Garda Headquarters, said that he was aware from intelligence that Mr McFarlane was wanted in connection with the kidnapping of Mr Tidey and the murders of recruit Garda Gary Sheehan and Army Private Patrick Kelly in 1983.
"If there was any knowledge that Mr McFarlane was in the State every effort would have been made to make contact with him. If I was the member of the Garda Siochana who came face to face with him, I would have arrested him," he said.
He was giving evidence on the seventh day of the trial of Maze prison escapee Brendan "Bik" McFarlane.
Mr McFarlane (56),a father of three, has pleaded not guilty to falsely imprisoning Mr Donald James Tidey on dates unknown between November 24th and December 16th, 1983. He also denies possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life at Derrada Wood, Drumcroman, Ballinamore, Co Leitrim between November 25th and December 16th,1983 and possession of a firearm for an unlawful purpose between the same dates.
Mr Jennings said he was not aware that Mr McFarlane had visited Co Donegal on a number of occasions while on parole and was not aware that the then Northern Ireland secretary of state Mo Mowlam was due to sign his final parole papers at 3 pm on the day he was arrested.
Mr Jennings told the court that on January 5th, 1998 he had received confidential information that Mr McFarlane was travelling on a bus from Dublin to Belfast and he was aware that Mr McFarlane was a suspect for the kidnapping of Mr Tidey and the fatal shootings of Garda Sheehan and Private Kelly.
He telephoned Detective Garda Jim Sheridan, who later arrested Mr McFarlane, at Dundalk Garda Station and communicated this information to him.
Cross examined by Mr McFarlane's counsel Mr Hugh Hartnett SC, the Assistant Commissioner said :"The source of the information was very confidential in nature" and he claimed privilege for the protection of the source.
Mr Jennings said that the source was not a member of the gardaí, and added that the information had not been received through a phone call or by fax or letter but had been received through "an electronic source."
Brendan McFarlane was the OC (officer commanding) of the Provisional IRA prisoners at the Maze prison at the time of the hunger strike in 1981 and escaped in the mass break out by 38 prisoners from the jail in September, 1983. He was later arrested in Amsterdam in January, 1986, extradited to Northern Ireland and released on parole from the Maze in 1997. He was arrested by gardaí outside Dundalk in January, 1998 as he travelled back to Belfast from Dublin following a trip to Copenhagen.
Supermarket executive Don Tidey was kidnapped by an IRA gang in 1983 and rescued after 23 days in captivity. A trainee garda, Gary Sheehan (20) of Carrickmacross, Co Monaghan, and a member of the Defence Forces, Private Patrick Kelly,(35), from Moate, Co Westmeath, were killed in a shoot out with the kidnap gang when Mr Tidey was rescued.