Morris Tribunal: Bugging in Garda stations of suspects and their solicitors was widespread and this was known by senior officers, Det Sgt John White claimed yesterday.
Det Sgt White said bugging in Garda stations was a well-kept secret. He had told two senior officers, Assistant Commissioner Kevin Carty and Chief Supt Austin McNally, of the internal Garda investigation team, about it in 1999 but they both told him they were not going to investigate it.
He had made an allegation that an interview between Róisín McConnell and her solicitor was bugged at Letterkenny Garda station in 1996 when she was arrested in connection with the investigation into the death of Richie Barron. However, yesterday he said bugging was widespread.
The chairman, Mr Justice Frederick Morris, asked if the Letterkenny bugging was not an isolated incident and he replied: "No, not by any means." On May 17th, 2001, his allegations of bugging appeared in a newspaper.
Mr Justice Morris asked why he made arrangements and orchestrated the fact that it was going to be published. What was his objective?
"My objective was to show this was going on," Det Sgt White said. " It had been kept secret for so long and I found that AC Carty was up in Donegal investigating matters but he had been entirely selective and what I told him was, if you are going to investigate everything in Donegal, why not investigate the bugging at the Garda station as well and he totally cut me short on that.
"I suppose in a way it was my way of getting back at AC Carty because he was covering it and hiding it," he added.
Mr Justice Morris asked if there was nobody else to whom he could have brought this information. "You were aware that something basically very improper was going on, that they were bugging solicitors' interviews and you were aware that not only was it happening in this instance but was happening, if you like, nationwide," he said.
He said Det Sgt White could have broadcast it to the public or gone to his higher authority with this scandalous information. Why he did not report it in a formal manner to maybe the commissioner? Why did he not bring it to the notice of the people who should know about it?
"Because they all knew about it," Det Sgt White said. Asked why he went public with it, he replied it was to get it out in the public arena and have a full investigation. He resented Mr Carty for what he had done and the improper manner in which he had treated him and set him up.
There was no point in going above Mr Carty or past him because who else could he go to, he asked. "At that stage my career was ruined anyway and was wrongfully ruined," Det Sgt White said.
Asked if there was an element of retaliation, he said: "There was yes, but it was the truth."
Det Sgt White said after his arrest over allegations, by Bernard Conlon, he went to see then chief superintendent Dermot Jennings in March 2001, and told him he was not guilty. Mr Jennings said he could not help.