Morris Tribunal: The evidence of a retired garda sergeant should be considered in the light of his advancing years and health problems, the Garda Commissioner's team said in its closing submission to the first module of the Morris tribunal.
"He suffered a heart attack and has had consequential problems since March 2002. His age now is 67, having retired in 1994. He gave at times very conflicting versions of events," Mr Pat Marrinan SC, for the commissioner, told the chairman.
Mr Marrinan said Supt Kevin Lennon might be regarded as a protégé of Det Sgt Des Walsh, "who in other circumstances might take justifiable pride in watching a man rise through the ranks whose career he had guided in its early stages".
Mr Walsh's evidence was "of a man caught between a misplaced sense of loyalty to his colleagues, and his innate desire to be honest and truthful".
Mr Marrinan summarised the conflict between the evidence of Det Sgt Walsh regarding a 1994 search of the flat of alleged informer Ms Adrienne McGlinchey's, and the evidence of Supt John P. O'Connor, also represented by the commissioner's team.
"O'Connor denies he had any involvement in the incident," Mr Marrinan said. Supt O'Connor said he was at a conference in Letterkenny on the day, and denied having returned to Buncrana Garda station and having issued a search warrant. He said he had gone to Dublin, where he was due to give evidence the next day.
Det Sgt Walsh, on the other hand, says he was called to the superintendent's office, advised of a find by Supt O'Connor, and invited to apply for a warrant. A search took place on foot of this warrant.
The disputed warrant was part of an investigation file which has now disappeared. In his evidence to the tribunal last year, Det Sgt Walsh said he had agreed, at the request of Supt Lennon, to "take responsibility" for the file by saying he had taken it with him when he retired, and later destroying it.
The last year of the tribunal would not have been necessary if the recommendations of Chief Supt Denis Fitzpatrick, who occupied the top intelligence position in Donegal during the period, had been followed, Mr Michael Durack said.
Mr Durack, also acting for the commissioner, said Chief Supt Fitzpatrick, then Border superintendent in Donegal, wrote a report on alleged informer Ms McGlinchey in May 1993 in which he recommended that gardaí "lay off" her for at least six months because of her unpredictable behaviour. Instead, however, Supt Lennon was appointed to supervise Ms McGlinchey's handling by Det Garda Noel McMahon. "Mr Fitzpatrick's analysis of Ms McGlinchey's behaviour and his concerns about it were fundamentally correct," Mr Durack said.
"Had his proposed course of action been adopted by Chief Supt Seán Ginty, it might have avoided the sequence of events which has culminated in this module."
In this module, the tribunal investigated allegations that Det McMahon and Supt Lennon prepared explosives together with Ms McGlinchey that were later used in bogus Garda arms finds in Co Donegal during the 1990s. Both denied the accusations, and Ms McGlinchey said she was never an informer or member of the IRA.