Woman 'told to fake kidnap by the IRA'

A detective garda told Ms Adrienne McGlinchey to pretend that she was kidnapped by the IRA and go down to the beach and stay …

A detective garda told Ms Adrienne McGlinchey to pretend that she was kidnapped by the IRA and go down to the beach and stay away for a few hours, the Morris tribunal was told.

Ms McGlinchey, who has denied she was an IRA informer, said Det Garda Noel McMahon told her to get a friend of hers, Ms Yvonne Devine, to tell the gardaí she had been kidnapped but she came back too soon because she was hungry.

She had been asked by Mr Peter Charleton SC, for the tribunal, if on August 7th/8th, 1992, she was kidnapped but she replied that she was not.

Ms McGlinchey agreed, however, that she had caused a report to be made on a kidnap by Ms Devine.

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"Noel McMahon told me to get Yvonne to report that I was kidnapped by the IRA and I don't know the reason for it and I got Yvonne to do it. He told me to stay away for a few hours and I went to the beach. I was supposed to stay away for a few hours but I was hungry so I came back," Ms McGlinchey said.

Det Garda McMahon was a bit annoyed that she came back too soon, she said.

Mr Charleton asked if this involved her staying out very late at night and being found in a distressed state near her flat at 4.30 a.m.

Ms McGlinchey said she would not say she was distressed. She came back too soon. Det Garda McMahon had told her to go to the beach in Buncrana and so she went there.

"It was cold and I got hungry and I came back too soon, sorry, but whatever happened I don't know the reason for it," she told the tribunal.

Mr Charleton said she had sent Ms Devine up to say she had been kidnapped at 3 a.m. A Garda report said she was found in a distressed state.

Ms McGlinchey said Det Garda McMahon wanted her to stay away until 6 or 7 a.m. She came from the beach and she just dallied up the road. A patrol car stopped. Det Garda McMahon was at the flat and he took her down to an entrance and asked her why she came back so soon.

"It's total rubbish that I was in any way distressed. I was more distressed that I'd come back too soon and he was mad at me if that means anything," she said.

She was not taken into a Garda station and was not questioned by the gardaí about the alleged kidnap. She had no idea why they did not investigate it.

Mr Charleton asked her about the Strabane courthouse bombing. Ms McGlinchey said she had nothing to do with that. Det Garda McMahon had told her that the fertiliser she had been grinding in her shed was used in the bomb.

"I had nothing to do with the Strabane courthouse bombing," she said. Det Garda McMahon said that 1,000 lb of fertiliser had been used in Strabane. She said she was asked once to drive a navy van to Strabane and leave it there with the keys in it. She did not know what was in it. Det Garda McMahon said the fertiliser was used in the bombing but never said the van was used.

Asked about the grinding of fertiliser which began at the end of 1992 and the involvement of Det Garda McMahon and Supt Kevin Lennon, she said one night Det Garda McMahon and Supt Lennon came to her flat in Buncrana at 3 a.m. They were both drunk. Det Garda McMahon battered her around the room with a torch and Supt Lennon was pushing her towards him all the time. She could not remember what she was supposed to have done wrong.

On another occasion, Supt Lennon carried bags of fertiliser to the flat to be ground.

"Noel McMahon told me that if I could convince them that I was showing them this big find, then nobody could ever touch me again. There'd be no more bags, no more everything, and that's basically how it happened. He told me if we could convince Kevin Lennon that I was in the IRA and if I was showing him this big dump then Kevin Lennon would stop everyone coming near me," she said.

The first time, the plan was to grind fertiliser and go and find a place to put it. She would tell Supt Lennon that the IRA was going to blow up Belleek and they would go and find the fertiliser, Ms McGlinchey said.

Asked why she had continued to do what Det Garda McMahon told her, Ms McGlinchey replied: "Nobody knows what he was like to me. Nobody knows what he was like to his wife. I saw him kick the stuffing out of her in front of their children. He was a loose cannon and nobody did anything to stop him."