The family of Mr John Carthy, shot dead by members of the Garda Emergency Response Unit in April, reiterated their call last night for an independent public inquiry into the circumstances surrounding his killing. The call followed publication of the internal Garda inquiry into the shooting.
Mr Peter Mullan, the family solicitor, said aspects of the killing needed to be investigated further. In particular, conflicting evidence given at the inquest by the State pathologist, Dr John Harbison, and a number of other parties in relation to the direction of the fourth and final bullet fired at Mr Carthy should be examined, he told RTE.
He criticised the leaking of the report in advance of its publication but welcomed the Garda Commissioner's decision to investigate whether non-lethal weapons should be made available to gardai in similar situations in future.
Ms Marie Carthy, a sister of the 27-year-old Abbeylara man killed, told The Irish Times her family were also bitterly disappointed at not having been given a copy of the Garda report before it was published. A copy was not given to the family's solicitor until several hours after it was released to the media, and up to then the only information they had on its contents came from radio news bulletins, she said.
The Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue, had asked the Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Equality and Women's Rights to "consider sympathetically" a request by the Carthy family to see the report before publication.
The Garda report found no fault with the decision taken by gardai to refuse Ms Carthy's request to be allowed speak to her brother face-to-face during the siege. "The evidence available to this investigation is that Marie Carthy arrived at the command post in the early hours of Thursday, April 20th, in a distressed state and appeared to have alcohol consumed. The view taken by the scene commander (Supt Joe Shelley) and negotiator (Insp Michael Jackson) was that, given her condition, if allowed to the scene she may have unwittingly inflamed the situation and compromised her safety and that of others," the Garda Commissioner, Mr Patrick Byrne, noted.
"This decision has to be viewed together with the willingness shown by those in charge of the operation to allow others, including his closest friends, to assist in the negotiations. I view the decision in the circumstances to be correct," he said.
Ms Carthy said the gardai were "just trying to make excuses" for not letting her talk to her brother. The suggestion she was drunk was untrue and extremely upsetting, she added. "They are saying I was under the influence of alcohol and I couldn't have been. I was brought from Galway in a Garda patrol car and dropped off at a neighbour's house where we all had a hot whiskey. One hot whiskey would hardly make anyone drunk".
Ms Carthy also believed criticism of her mother, Mrs Rose Carthy, was unfair. The report said Mrs Carthy claimed she left her house after her son fired his first shot. "The investigation will show that in fact she remained in the house for over an hour, during which period a further two shots were discharged."
It added: "The investigating officer is of the view that Rose has not told the full story of the happenings."
According to the report Mrs Carthy, in her statement to gardai, said she left the house of her own accord but she had told gardai who called to the scene her son had put her out of the house. Ms Marie Carthy insisted yesterday Mr Carthy did not put her mother out of the house. "They never argued," she said.
The text of the Interim Report of the Joint Committee on Justice, Equality, Defence and Women's Rights on the Garda investigation into the shooting of John Carthy at Abbeylara can be accessed on The Irish Times website, www.ireland.com