A document containing allegations similar to those in a document sent to an opposition justice spokesman in 2001 may have been retyped by the teenage daughter of Frank McBrearty snr as a typing exercise, the Morris tribunal has heard.
A British document examiner has said that the anonymous document to former Fine Gael justice spokesman Jim Higgins, outlining serious allegations against senior gardaí, contained idiosyncrasies also found in letters it was believed were typed by retired garda PJ Togher, and that he was the most likely author of the anonymous allegations.
Mr Togher says he was not the typist of several of the letters and only typed parts of some letters, which were later amended by others.
The former garda said he asked Mr McBrearty who had typed the other letters, and the Raphoe publican told him "he had at least eight people typing for him, including two different companies".
Mr Togher said Mr McBrearty believed his teenage daughter, who was learning to type at the time, had typed one document which contained information similar to that which was contained in the anonymous allegations fax.
"He did pass the comment that his daughter was learning to type, she was going to school and that she may have typed it, but he wasn't sure," Mr Togher said.
Garda and tribunal investigations have found no evidence to confirm any of the allegations in the fax sent to Mr Higgins and the tribunal is seeking to identify the author of the document to investigate the allegations further.
Mr McBrearty said he never told journalist Frank Connolly or solicitor Ken Smyth to destroy copies of the document which he had passed on to them.