A former FBI agent who coined the term "suicide by cop" has told the Barr tribunal that Mr John Carthy's behaviour at the Abbeylara siege was "totally consistent with" and "a classic example of" that phenomenon. Olivia Kelly reports.
Mr Frederick J. Lanceley, who was the FBI negotiator at the Waco and Ruby Ridge sieges in the US and lectures in siege and conflict negotiation, said he did not believe Mr Carthy intended to shoot himself or the gardaí but when he walked out of his house, "he had already made the decision to die".
Mr Lanceley said that when he coined the term "suicide by cop" following a US siege 20 years ago, he had no idea he would be sitting in a court in Dublin with a classic example of the phenomenon before him.
"When this tribunal is over Mr Carthy's case will be used by me as a classic suicide by cop. It would not even be a matter of controversy in the US; this is what suicide by cop is."
Mr Carthy showed all of the 12 documented indicators of the phenomenon, most notably that he had challenged the gardaí to shoot him and said, "come in and get me".
He said Mr Carthy had made elaborate plans for the incident. The day he died, Holy Thursday, April 2000, was the 10th anniversary of his father's death and his grandfather had died on the same day.
It was a 48 million to one chance, Mr Lanceley said, that it was merely coincidence Mr Carthy died on that day.
He believed Mr Carthy planned to die in the "family homestead" but gardaí upset his plans by not shooting him inside and forcing him to leave the house to be killed.
Counsel for the tribunal, Mr Michael McGrath, said another expert witness, Dr Ian McKenzie, a forensic psychologist, had written in his report to the tribunal that it would be a mistake to put excessive emphasis on the anniversary coincidence.
"The only thing I can say to that is I wouldn't ask him to make a bet for me at the track," Mr Lanceley said.
Imposing a deadline was another indicator, and Mr Carthy was reportedly looking at his watch towards the end of the siege.
He called the gardaí "Free State bastards" and "Black and Tans" in an attempt to provoke them to shoot; he showed a sense of "helplessness and hopelessness" and he refused to talk.
Mr Carthy deliberately escalated the situation to force the gardaí to shoot him.
This would have achieved the objective of "hiding" his suicide to avoid bringing shame on his family, Mr Lanceley said or would have "hid his suicide from God".
Mr McGrath asked why, if Mr Carthy wanted to be shot, he didn't point his gun at the armed gardaí following him outside house.
"That's kinda beyond me, because in my experience most police departments would never have allowed Mr Carthy to get that far," Mr Lanceley replied.