MORRIS TRIBUNAL: It was "most surprising" that swabs would not be taken for an explosives test after alleged Garda informant Ms Adrienne McGlinchey and her flatmate were arrested after explosive materials were found in her flat, the Morris tribunal was told yesterday.
The tribunal is examining allegations by Ms McGlinchey that together with suspended gardaí Det Noel McMahon and Supt Kevin Lennon she mixed explosives that were later used in bogus Garda finds of terrorist arms. Both men have denied those claims, and Ms McGlinchey has maintained she was never an IRA informer.
On March 14th, 1994, Ms McGlinchey and her flatmate Ms Yvonne Devine were arrested under Section 30 of the Offences against the State Act after explosives materials - fertiliser and icing sugar mix - were found in her flat.
Garda Catherine McGonigle was on duty at Burnfoot Garda station that night, and searched Ms Devine. She said she did not take swabs to perform an explosive test for ANIS (ammonium nitrate/icing sugar), but that these normally would have been taken by detectives.
It was "unusual" that a search warrant was not issued on a previous occasion after she and Det Tom Sreenan had observed white powder being thrown from the flat of Ms McGlinchey and Ms Devine in October 1992, she said.
Garda Chris Galligan, station orderly at Burnfoot that night, said it would be "most surprising" that swabs were not taken. "They were simple steps that you would be taught in Templemore," he told the tribunal.
Garda Galligan said when he inspected the prisoner during an interview the next day, "there was a gay frivolity about the thing, kind of a surreal quality".
Ms McGlinchey has alleged that the interview that day by Det Insp (now Supt) Lennon and Det Noel McMahon was "a sham", and that the three sat in the interview room reading newspapers.
Det Garda James Breslin told the tribunal when he arrived for duty on March 14th, 1994, he was informed a search would be carried out on Ms McGlinchey's flat. He was told to go to Swilly Terrace, where known republicans stayed. He was there half-an-hour to an hour, until he was called back to Buncrana station. Det Breslin said he had no suspicions about this at the time, but that now "because of me not being sent there, it looks like I was being sent out of the way".
When he returned to the station, Det Breslin was shown two suitcases which he was told contained explosives, and was told by Det Insp Kevin Lennon to arrest Ms McGlinchey if he saw her.
Proper procedures were normally carried out in interviewing, and swabs collected for forensic examination, he said, and the failure to do so in this instance was an "isolated case". Asked what he thought of Ms McGlinchey, he said: "I knew she was supposed to be an informer but I didn't know what she was supposed to be informing about.
"I couldn't see her being able to give top quality information. It would have been very low grade." He said that he formed the opinion Ms McGlinchey "wasn't really up to very much" based on surveillance of her activities.
Det Insp Michael Keane told the tribunal he could find no record of a checkpoint on the night Ms McGlinchey alleged she was stopped between Donegal town and Ballybofey.
Ms McGlinchey alleged that she, along with Supt Kevin Lennon and Det Noel McMahon, were stopped while returning from Rossnowlagh having transported fertiliser mix there. The inspector said it was possible a checkpoint was set up ad hoc, as no record would be kept unless a checkpoint discovered something which led to a prosecution.
The tribunal continues.