Wife of garda was told about bomb for North

A garda sergeant told the wife of Det Garda Noel McMahon that Mr McMahon and Supt Kevin Lennon had allowed a bomb to go into Northern Ireland, the Court of Criminal Appeal heard.

Ms Sheena McMahon said that her husband, Noel, had led her to believe for years that Ms Adrienne McGlinchey was an IRA informer and that Ms McGlinchey had to be "let do" something now and again. Ms McMahon said her husband told her a bomb which exploded in Strabane, Co Tyrone, was one of the bombs Ms McGlinchey had to be let do.

However, a garda sergeant later told her this was "all a scam", that Ms McGlinchey was "no more IRA", and that Mr McMahon and Mr Lennon had set up the Strabane bomb themselves to give them credence in their job. The same sergeant told her that the RUC found out about this and were very annoyed.

Ms McMahon said her husband had always said he'd "come up" with Mr Lennon. She took that to mean promotion. Her husband told her Mr Lennon had told him to do the Garda sergeants' exam and he (Mr Lennon) would get the questions for her husband, but her husband would not do that.

Ms McMahon was being questioned about pages of notes which she said were in the handwriting of her husband.

She referred to an incident when she said her husband had kicked and punched her and put a gun to her head when she had let another garda into his bedroom. She said her husband put the gun to her head, clicked the trigger and said: "I'll blow your f...ing brains out." She had her young children in the house. She decided she was "not taking any more of this" and obtained a protection order later that day.

She said that Ms McGlinchey had been brought by her husband and Mr Lennon to Ms McMahon's home on a particular occasion. Ms McGlinchey was sober arriving, but two hours later was very drunk, and the witness saw her husband and Mr Lennon pouring vodka and coke into a glass. She later saw them "firing" Ms McGlinchey into the back seat of a car. On another occasion, when she offered to bring Ms McGlinchey a cup of tea, Mr Lennon had said: "Don't bother, She's only a f...ing tramp."

Ms McMahon said she had taken steel tubes from her home in Buncrana in 1999 and had shown them to Chief Supt Denis Fitzpatrick, of Letterkenny Garda station. He did not say what they were, but asked her minutes later to meet Assistant Commissioner Kevin Carty. The following day, Mr Carty told her the tubes were illegal and asked her for them.

She had taken legal advice and did not hand them over at that point. She said Mr Carty was very sharp and abrasive and annoyed with her.

Mr Edward Comyn SC, for the DPP, later told the court that the tubes were in the possession of the Garda and constituted an explosive substance.

Her husband had asked her to withdraw a statement she made to the Carty inquiry, Ms McMahon also said.