A senior garda has denied that any collusion to present an alleged informer as genuine went wider than two detectives being investigated by the Morris tribunal. Gerard Cunningham reports.
The garda was district officer in Buncrana in the early 1990s.
The tribunal is examining allegations that Det Noel McMahon and Supt Kevin Lennon prepared explosives for subsequent bogus arms finds by the Garda. The officers have denied the claims.
Tribunal lawyer Mr Peter Charleton put it to Supt John P. O'Connor that it might be inferred that obvious facts were ignored, and if the tribunal were to conclude there was collusion between alleged informer Ms Adrienne McGlinchey and the two gardaí, then perhaps the collusion went wider.
"In other words the toleration of this situation, of the 'bury stuff, find it and we'll all look good at headquarters', is the fact that by ignoring obvious facts you do not stop this happening as it goes along," said Mr Charleton.
"It is my duty to put the possibility that if there was collusion, you were involved in it."
Supt O'Connor replied: "I deny there was any collusion. It wasn't my role to make a judgment in relation to Ms McGlinchey."
Mr Charleton outlined two situations where Ms McGlinchey was not charged after the recovery of stolen number plates and of a .22 rifle and shotgun ammunition.
"The hands-off policy seems to amount to immunity from prosecution," he said.
"Not from my perspective," said Supt O'Connor. He trusted in his superior, Chief Supt Seán Ginty, to deal with matters as he best saw fit.
Tribunal chairman Mr Justice Morris asked if Ms McGlinchey would be prosecuted for a traffic accident, and what was the difference between that and possession of ammunition.
"What is the dividing line?" he asked.
"The dividing line was the instructions I got," Supt O'Connor said. "It wasn't a subversive offence." The "hands-off policy" was formulated by Chief Supt Ginty and Border Supt Denis Fitzpatrick, a senior officer who served in Buncrana during the early 1990s, he said.
"I never understood Supt Ginty's direction to mean anything other than to leave a particular member to handle her," he said. "I clearly understood that there was no direction to give her immunity from prosecution and I never conveyed that to any member."
On October 12th, 1993, Supt O'Connor received a phone call from Det Sgt Sreenan that unusual noises were coming from the flat of Ms McGlinchey, and that a gun or a walkie-talkie had been seen through the window. Sgt Sreenan said he was seeking a warrant to search the flat under Section 29 of the Offences Against the State Act.
"I was in a difficult situation. On the one hand there was allegations that there was a breach of the criminal law, on the other the question of exposing an agent," Supt O'Connor said.
"How do you expose an agent as an agent if she is waving a gun in her window and you send in gardaí to arrest her and charge her?" asked Mr Charleton.
"After consulting with Det Insp Lennon and the Chief Superintendent, I decided on the Chief Superintendent's advice not to issue the warrant," he said.