The former wife of a garda at the centre of investigations into hoax explosives finds wanted Sinn Féin's Mr Martin McGuinness to investigate serious threats against her, the Morris tribunal heard yesterday.
Supt Tom Long told the tribunal that Ms Sheenagh McMahon, estranged wife of Det Garda Noel McMahon said she had been threatened by Ms Adrienne McGlinchey, a Garda informant.
She said Ms McGlinchey told her that an unnamed "well-known republican" would "deal with her" if she didn't "keep her mouth shut". Supt Long wrote the man's name on paper and handed it to Mr Justice Morris. Ms McMahon told him that Det Garda McMahon, Supt Kevin Lennon and Ms McGlinchey had used her home to mix explosives and then transported the material around Donegal and Northern Ireland. She told Supt Long she didn't trust the gardaí because this activity had been "okayed from the top down". She was "in fear of her life" and felt she would be seen as a "headbanger" that no one would listen to. Supt Long was the only garda she could trust, the tribunal heard. Ms McMahon repeatedly said she wanted Mr McGuinness to investigate the matter. Earlier the tribunal heard that a garda had taken a statement from Ms McMahon after her solicitor had emphasised he should not do so because she was "under severe stress".
Mr Niall Sheridan, Ms McMahon's solicitor said he was approached by Garda Martin Leonard outside Letterkenny court on July 9th, 1999, and told that Ms McMahon wanted to withdraw a statement she made about her husband's alleged involvement in hoax explosives finds.
He said he told Garda Leonard that Ms McMahon was "in no fit condition" to make a statement and he urged him not to proceed. "She was clearly under stress, under severe stress," Mr Sheridan recalled. She had been dealing with family law proceedings at the time. When he learned that Garda Leonard had taken the statement from Ms McMahon a few hours later, he was "very surprised. I was shocked, in fact. It shouldn't have happened".
Yesterday, Garda Leonard defended his decision to take the statement. "I'm convinced in my heart that I did nothing wrong in taking that statement," Garda Leonard told the tribunal. He said it was "grossly unfair" that it was being suggested that he had coerced her into making the statement.
Garda Leonard denied that the statement was withdrawn because Det Garda McMahon was due to be interviewed by the Carty inquiry two days later. However, Ms McMahon will give evidence that it was her husband, and not her, who asked that the statement be withdrawn. She is expected to begin giving evidence to the tribunal today.
