A detective garda told the Court of Criminal Appeal yesterday he never planted drugs at a Co Donegal nightclub and never arranged for anyone else to do so. There was "no need to plant stuff" at the Point Inn in Inishowen; there was "enough there without anyone planting it", Det Garda Noel McMahon said.
When the Point Inn was raided by gardaí on three occasions in 1992, he believed drugs with a street value of between £5,000 and £7,000 were recovered each time, he said. What was recovered was "only the tip of the iceberg", he said. He saw people "swallowing chunks of cannabis". It would have been fruitless to plant drugs. "We would have been like Santa Claus going in with sacks on our backs. It would have been a stupid move, to say the least", he added.
He was giving evidence at the continuing hearing of an application by Mr Frank Shortt for a certificate declaring a miscarriage of justice in his case. Mr Shortt was jailed for three years in 1995 after being convicted of knowingly allowing the sale of drugs at the Point Inn. The conviction was overturned in November 2000 with no opposition from the DPP.
Opening his evidence, Det Garda McMahon said he was currently suspended from duty, but his solicitor had written to the Garda Commissioner demanding his immediate reinstatement.
In June 1992 he took up duty as an undercover officer at the Point to see if there was any evidence of drug-dealing. His first purchase of drugs was from a named youth on July 5th, 1992. He was given "skimpy" amounts of money to buy drugs and could have bought a lot more.
Asked about Ms Adrienne McGlinchey, who has made a number of allegations against Det Garda McMahon and Supt Kevin Lennon, he said he first met her in 1991 when he was sent with another detective to interview her after she was arrested. He said she associated with "a lot of suspect PIRA". From 1991 to 1992 he was building up a relationship with her about other matters.
He never asked her to go to the Point Inn and buy drugs, never showed her drugs to buy and never gave her £80 to buy drugs. He believed she offered to go to the Point after publicity about a Garda raid there. He was almost 100 per cent certain that offer was made some time after August 2nd, 1992. Apart from a shooting in Ballinamore, he told Mr Justice Hardiman, he believed the Point operation was the most "hyped-up" Garda operation he was ever involved in.
He told her to go if she wanted to. He would never refuse information but he didn't need her there. There was no vendetta against Frank Shortt.
Asked about an interview he had with the Carty Garda inquiry into allegations of corruption among gardaí in Donegal in which he had said Ms McGlinchey was "supposed to go" to the Point, Det Garda McMahon said he might have used the wrong word.
Earlier Supt Kevin Lennon said Det Garda McMahon had come to his office with the detective's draft statement for Mr Shortt's trial. The detective had asked his advice regarding the statement in the context of an advice-on-proofs document. He agreed that Det Garda McMahon should have known what to do as he had already received the advice on proofs.
Supt Lennon said he had not influenced Det Garda McMahon in relation to the advice and had certainly not influenced the detective's statement. He had never seen any notes or notebook of the detective garda's in relation to the Point Inn.
Supt Lennon said the Garda operation regarding the Point Inn was codenamed Operation Spider as it had many legs. Mr Justice O'Higgins remarked that the superintendent would hardly have anticipated at the time it would become "such a tangled web".
The hearing continues today.
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