A detective sergeant told the Barr tribunal yesterday he could not recall any conversation among gardaí along the lines that when John Carthy came out of the house he was looking for his sister.
The tribunal was told that shortly before Mr Carthy was shot dead at Abbeylara, Co Longford, on April 20th, 2000, after a 26-hour siege, he was told his sister, Ms Marie Carthy, would telephone him.
Mr Michael O'Higgins SC, for the Carthy family, asked Det Sgt Michael Sullivan about the call. Sgt Sullivan said he made a suggestion at about 5.20 p.m. that Ms Carthy might ring her brother.
Mr O'Higgins asked if he knew whether Mr Carthy was told that Det Insp Michael Jackson, then a sergeant, was to give his mobile to Ms Carthy and that she was going to ring him in a minute from the car down the road.
"My understanding was that Det Sgt Jackson was to do that immediately and tell John that Marie would attempt to ring him," Sgt Sullivan said.
Mr O'Higgins asked if Insp Jackson was to tell him that his sister would ring and she was close by. Sgt Sullivan said: "I don't exactly know what Det Sgt Jackson said, but I know he was going to tell John that she would attempt to contact him by phone."
Mr O'Higgins asked: "Was there any discussion among the ERU members, or any members for that matter, in the immediate aftermath of John Carthy being shot, along the lines of that he came out and he was looking for Marie?" Sgt Sullivan said: "I don't recall any such conversation."
Mr O'Higgins referred to evidence of the State Pathologist, Prof John Harbison, at Mr Carthy's inquest.
Prof Harbison had said he was told Mr Carthy had been heading up the hill. He was asked if that was the history given to him by the people there, that Mr McCarthy went ". . . towards the relatives, towards a car parked on the opposite side of the road where he believed, I gather, his sister was?" Prof Harbison replied: "Yes."
Mr O'Higgins asked Sgt Sullivan whether he had ever heard any discussion consistent with such a history.
Sgt Sullivan said he did not. He said he was at the inquest. He was not sure whether he heard it at the inquest. "There was no discussion and I don't remember that being said at the scene either."