Morris TribunalThe suspended detective at the centre of claims that arms finds in Donegal a decade ago were bogus was yesterday asked if an incident where his alleged informer carried a package across the border to Strabane, Co Tyrone, was a "sham" designed to make him and his superior officer look good.
Det Noel McMahon told the Morris tribunal that the first he knew of the package was when his alleged informer, Ms Adrienne McGlinchey, phoned him on September 11th, 1993, to let him know she was to take a taxi from Buncrana to Strabane with the package, which contained shotgun cartridges and .22 ammunition.
In a later call, Ms McGlinchey told him she was in Lifford, and was ready to cross the bridge into the North. Ms McGlinchey alleges that Det McMahon arranged bogus arms finds along with Supt Kevin Lennon.
Both gardaí deny her charges, and Ms McGlinchey says she was never an informer.
Det McMahon said when he received the first call, he passed the information on to his supervisor, Insp Kevin Lennon.
"It was a task she said she was given, picking up the package and making the delivery."
He said he did not consider it unusual the IRA would want .22 ammunition.
Det McMahon said he made a mistake in assuming the second phone call would come from Buncrana. When she told him she was in Lifford, "at that stage all I could do was fill in Insp Lennon and get him to inform the RUC".
Tribunal chairman Mr Justice Frederick Morris asked the detective could he not have been more "proactive".
"Surely there's more to be expected from you than to sit back and wait for the next phone call," he asked. "I can't understand why you simply sat back and did nothing," the judge said. "Between the two of you, you did nothing."
Det McMahon said he had to wait by the phone in case Ms McGlinchey phoned again.
"I expected the second phone call to tell me she was leaving for Strabane. I would then call Insp Lennon."
"We expected enough notice to set up a checkpoint," he added.
Tribunal lawyer Mr Paul McDermott asked Det McMahon why he had not told his story to investigators from the Carty inquiry team. The detective said he had been told by his lawyers not to say anything.
Judge Morris intervened to ask the detective why he had contacted the RUC at all about the operation.
"You have a friendly informer doing a very stupid thing, carrying .22 bullets which are themselves disagreeable but harmless. What did you want the RUC to do with your informer?"
Det McMahon said that he had passed on the information he had to his superiors.
"Please don't try to shift the blame onto someone else," said the judge.
"You are at the centre of this. Tell me what it is you expected the RUC to do?"
"I expected the RUC to take the bullets out of commission."
Judge Morris said it seemed to him that if Ms McGlinchey was a "bona fide informer" she was being unnecessarily exposed to the risk of being picked up.
"That was a decision for the RUC having been informed by Insp Lennon," Det McMahon replied. "My function was to get the intelligence and pass it on."
The judge said that the other scenario was that the operation was "a sham", and Det McMahon and Insp Lennon would "look very good as the super intelligence pair". He asked if it was reasonable to assume that this was what was going on, rather than genuine subversive activity.
"I could only take the intelligence as it came and pass it on," Det McMahon said.
However, four days earlier Det Garda Noel Jones had discovered an envelope of bullets outside the McGlinchey flat in Buncrana, and brought them to the station to examine.
However, he told the tribunal he was ordered by Supt J.P. O'Connor to return the bullets.
"He never went to the trouble of informing me about it. I think if this event occurred he should have informed me about it," Det McMahon said.