Garda claims he was moved after raising questions

A garda superintendent has told the Court of Criminal Appeal he was moved from Letterkenny Garda station in Co Donegal after he had raised "serious questions" in connection with what is now known as the McBrearty affair.

Having "inherited" the McBrearty affair in 1997, Supt Kevin Lennon said he had raised serious questions and issues of concern about a statement of confession to the death of a man in Raphoe.

He had put his views in writing to the DPP that this man (who had made the statement) should not be prosecuted, he said. "I stuck my neck out, as it were." He had been then sent to Milford Garda station and on August 10th, 2000 he was sent to Garda Headquarters in Dublin, where he remains.

A tribunal has been set up to inquire into the McBrearty affair and other allegations of corruption against gardaí in Co Donegal, including the prosecution of nightclub owner Mr Frank Shortt on drug charges. The McBrearty affair relates to allegations by Mr Frank McBrearty snr, of Raphoe, that he and his family were harassed by gardaí over several years.

Mr McBrearty has said that, after the death of a local man, Mr Richie Barron, in October 1996, his son and nephew became the focus of a murder investigation. They were not prosecuted and Mr McBrearty claimed he and his family began to have summonses served on them over a three-year period.

In all, 190 summonses were issued but all have been withdrawn by the DPP.

He has alleged that senior Garda officers were among the conspirators in a campaign to damage his family and himself. A number of senior officers have denied those claims.

Yesterday, Supt Lennon was giving evidence in the continuing hearing of an application by Mr Shortt, of Redcastle, Inishowen, for a certificate declaring a miscarriage of justice arising from his conviction in 1995 for knowingly allowing his nightclub, The Point Inn, Quigley's Point, to be used for the sale of drugs.

Mr Shortt served a three-year jail sentence. His conviction was quashed in November 2000 with no opposition from the DPP.

Supt Lennon said he was stationed in Co Donegal from 1975. He was attached to Buncrana, Burnfoot and Letterkenny stations prior to being moved to Milford after 1997. He was promoted to superintendent in 1996.

He said Ms Adrienne McGlinchey, of Letterkenny, who has given evidence in the hearing and has made several allegations against Supt Lennon and Det Garda Noel McMahon, including a claim that Det McMahon told her he had perjured himself during Mr Shortt's trial and did so to get Supt Lennon (then an inspector) promoted, was "on record" within the Garda from 1989.

He knew of her but was not introduced to her until 1993. Det McMahon introduced them. Certain gardaí were dealing with her. He was sent by his chief superintendent to be a conduit for information supplied by Ms McGlinchey to her "handlers", Det McMahon and a Det Kelly.

In June 1992, he was appointed to investigate suspicions of misuse of drugs at the Point Inn. He was not aware of any dealings between the gardaí and Ms McGlinchey regarding the Point and had not authorised any such dealings.

He said the file for the prosecution of the Point Inn case was prepared under his direction. Prior to the trial, he had received an advice on proofs prepared by Ms Miriam Reynolds SC. He was in charge of dealing with matters raised in the advice. He had contacted the gardaí involved.

He had shown the advice on proofs to Det McMahon and other gardaí. Det McMahon produced a draft statement. Supt Lennon went through that document with Det McMahon in relation to what was said in the advice and interviewed the detective in accordance with the advice and the Garda manual on investigation techniques.

Supt Lennon said he wrote down Det McMahon's answers and the detective went away and made an additional statement.

On being given a document, Supt Lennon said he believed this was the draft statement of Det McMahon. He identified handwritten notes on the document as being in his own writing except for a note on the back of the statement which read: "If give evidence in court - nasty".

He believed that note was in Det McMahon's writing and believed it indicated the detective was unhappy about something in the statement. He had not seen Det McMahon writing that down and had not seen the draft statement after he had written his own notes on it.

Supt Lennon said the notes he had written on Det McMahon's draft statement were in red and blue ink. He agreed the notes were in the nature of instructions.

He had permitted Det McMahon to take a number of statements to the detective's home to have them typed. Supt Lennon said he went to Det McMahon's home with a statement the superintendent had taken from the county registrar. Det McMahon and two gardaí, Tina Fowley and Brendan Joyce, were there. Mrs Sheena McMahon came in for a time. Supt Lennon said he had not had Det McMahon's notebook on that occasion but may have had his own notebook.

At the outset of yesterday's hearing, in what Mr Justice Hardiman described as a "dramatic development" and a "very remarkable document to be tendered for the first time on the ninth day of the hearing", Mr Edward Comyn SC, for the DPP, handed in a note outlining an account by Det McMahon of Ms McGlinchey's dealings with him relating to the Point Inn.

Ms McGlinchey described as "false" Det McMahon's assertion in that note that she had offered to go to the Point Inn to buy drugs and to identify drug dealers. She said Det McMahon's statement that he never saw her at the Point was true.

She also said she never told the Carty inquiry into allegations of corruption by gardaí in Donegal that she had dropped drugs in the Point prior to a Garda raid on the premises, and repeated that she never went to the Point.

When the court was due to resume at 2 p.m. yesterday, Mr Justice Hardiman said matters had arisen and the hearing would not resume until today.