'No satisfactory answer' regarding two-hour delay

The Garda officer in command of the scene at Abbeylara on the night before John Carthy was shot dead by gardaí yesterday admitted he could give the Barr tribunal chairman "no satisfactory answer" why it took two hours to find Mr Martin Shelly in the village of Abbeylara.

Mr Carthy had agreed to speak to his friend, Mr Shelly, shortly before midnight after he was informed by the Emergency Response Unit negotiator that Mr Shelly was at the scene.

Mr Shelly was not located until close to 2 a.m., even though he had been escorted to the house where he was staying by a member of the Garda. Supt Michael Byrne told the tribunal he didn't know why it took so long to locate Mr Shelly, who was staying in a house some 300 yards from the scene.

When asked by Mr Justice Barr if the garda driving the squad car in which Mr Shelly was brought to the nearby house would not have been the logical first person to ask, Supt Byrne said he didn't have a satisfactory answer.

"Abbeylara is not a city, superintendent. Abbeylara is a small place. How is it possible it took so long to find him?" Mr Justice Barr asked.

"I don't have a satisfactory answer," Supt Byrne replied.

When asked if he tried knocking at the "few houses" in the village or ringing mobile phones, Supt Byrne replied that he presumed this was done. He refuted the chairman's suggestion that he had made "no serious attempt" to find Mr Shelly.

When asked if he believed the delay in locating Mr Shelly would have assisted the negotiations, he said: "I'm sure if it had any effect, it would not have assisted the negotiations."

During his evidence to the tribunal yesterday morning, Supt Byrne said he became aware of Mr Carthy's allegations of police brutality, associated with his wrongful arrest in September 1998, some time during the night of the siege.

Yesterday afternoon, however, he said he was no longer sure that he was aware of the alleged mistreatment at that time. "I know I said this morning that I did, but I'm not sure about that now."