Morris tribunal:A senior Garda officer has said he did not order the transfer of a Donegal detective sergeant facing suspension following his arrest in March 2000.
Assistant commissioner Dermot Jennings told the tribunal he merely got advice on whether Det Sgt John White could apply to move from Co Donegal to Dublin.
He said Det Sgt White was distressed and feared his career was over when he was initially suspended from his job for 72 hours in March 2000 following his arrest in connection with the "Silver Bullet" affair, which the tribunal reported on in an earlier module.
Mr Jennings, who was a chief superintendent in charge of security intelligence at the crime and security branch in Garda HQ at the time, met with Det Sgt White in a Dublin pub following the sergeant's arrest.
"He was very stressed out," Mr Jennings said. "I had some sympathy for him. Even more when we came face to face. He has tears running down his face."
Mr Jennings said the sergeant told him he "was finished as a policeman in Donegal, his credibility was gone. He said he needed to get out of there." The assistant commissioner said that Det Sgt White asked him for a transfer and also if he could trace some phone calls.
Det Sgt White has said that he was told to apply for the transfer by Mr Jennings at the meeting, which he had requested to explain how confidential documents had been taken from his locker in Letterkenny Garda station.
Mr Jennings said he told Det Sgt White he did not have the power to order a transfer and could not trace phone calls for him, but the following day he called Deputy Commissioner Fachtna Murphy, assistant commissioner in charge of human resources at the time, and asked if a suspended officer could request a transfer.
Mr Jennings said he was told it was possible, and he passed on the information to Det Sgt White. He also told Donegal chief superintendent Denis Fitzpatrick that Det Sgt White would apply for a transfer.
"I felt from talking to John White that I was the only one he could turn to," Mr Jennings said. "I told him I could inquire the next morning to get information for him.
"I was not intervening, under no circumstances. I was making an inquiry.
"Under no circumstance was I trying to influence Assistant Commissioner Murphy," he added.