Morris tribunal:A solicitor has told the Morris tribunal he believed a fax he received from his client, Frank McBrearty snr, alleging the Carty inquiry into Garda corruption in Co Donegal was compromised, had been written by a retired garda who worked for the Raphoe publican.
Ken Smyth received the document on the morning of Monday, June 26th, 2000, the day after it was sent to Jim Higgins TD and barrister Martin Giblin SC by Mr McBrearty snr.
Mr Smyth said that Mr McBrearty phoned him and asked him to make a copy of the document and destroy the fax, but he felt "uncomfortable" doing this, and retained the original fax.
The solicitor said he believed at the time that the author of the document was PJ Togher, a retired garda who did some work for Mr McBrearty snr, on the basis of conversations he had with Mr Togher covering similar topics to those in the fax document. But he said Mr McBrearty snr never told him who the author of the fax was.
Mr Togher has told the tribunal he was not the author of the document, which Mr McBrearty snr says he received anonymously in the post.
Mr Smyth said it was "absolutely not the case" that he had a document in his office with similar allegations before it was sent to Mr Higgins in late June 2000, as journalist John Mooney had told a Garda inquiry into the allegations in the document.
He said that Mr Mooney had been in his offices only once, in the summer of 2000, after the document had been sent to Mr Higgins.
Mr Smyth said he received a second fax on July 15th, 2000, which he believed came from the same source as the first document, but it was almost illegible.
An inquiry was launched headed by deputy commissioner Fachtna Murphy after the allegations were brought to the attention of the then minister for justice, John O'Donoghue, who forwarded the matter to the Garda Commissioner.
Chief Supt Pat Brehony told the tribunal that 105 people had been interviewed about the allegations in the anonymous document during the inquiry, but no evidence had been found to support any of the allegations.