Garda still not willing to accept responsibility, says family

Carthy family reaction: It was regrettable that, even with the publication of the Barr report into the fatal shooting of John Carthy, the Garda Síochána was still not prepared to accept responsibility, according to the Carthy family and its legal team.

At a press conference in Dublin yesterday to give their initial response to the 700-page report, Mr Carthy's sister Marie said: "To this day, my family believes that there was no just cause to fatally shoot John."

The family's solicitor, Peter Mullan, said: "It seems that the gardaí are still not prepared to accept responsibility for what happened at Abbeylara."

Mr Mullan, of Garrett Sheehan Solicitors, said that Garda representatives had claimed yesterday that the decisions which led to the death of John Carthy "occurred within seconds". However, during the siege, gardaí had had 25 hours to "prepare and plan for a peaceful end to the impasse".

In the six years since John Carthy's death, no one at any level within the Garda had accepted responsibility.

With the report, the "gross negligence and incompetence" displayed during the siege had been laid bare. "After six long years the truth has been established and it is incumbent on those responsible for the series of errors to be held to account," he said.

Asked what action she would like to see taken against the senior Garda officers named in the report as primarily responsible for the shooting, Ms Carthy said: "That would not be up to me to make any such decision. That would be a matter for the Garda Commissioner and the Minister for Justice."

Mr Mullan added that they awaited the response of the Minister and Garda Commissioner to the "criticism of the various members of the Garda Síochána".

He said that what had emerged from the report was a "train of events that began with the physical abuse of John in Granard Garda station and ended in John's death on April 20th 2000". He added: "The chairman correctly identifies John's death as a disaster and something that would not have occurred had things been done right."

Ms Carthy emphasised that, like so many people worldwide, John Carthy did experience depression. "Right now, over 300,000 Irish people suffer from depression." She said that she would like to see the introduction of the use of non-lethal weapons by gardaí and the training of gardaí to deal with people suffering from depression.

Asked about the possibility of suing the gardaí, she said that yesterday was "not a day to rule in or rule out legal action".

Ms Carthy said that, at the age of 27, John Carthy was shot dead by members of the Garda Síochána. "To lose my only brother in such horrific circumstances was simply heart-breaking."

She added: "We need answers so that we can try and move on with our own lives. Perhaps most important we need answers so that this tragedy never happens to another family again."

Ms Carthy described the report's publication as an important milestone, having witnessed "the inquest into John's death, the internal Garda inquiry, the establishment and subsequent collapse of the Dáil sub-committee inquiry and finally the tribunal chaired by Justice Barr".