The chairman of the Smithwick Tribunal has expressed disappointment that a former Garda assistant commissioner did not attend to give evidence today, despite the tribunal having issued a summons and six other forms of correspondence to his Irish address since March of this year.
Kevin Carthy was a detective inspector who aided the then assistant commissioner Ned O'Dea, in an investigation which probed allegations that a mole within Dundalk Garda station provided information to the IRA, resulting in the murders of two senior RUC officers in the 1980s.
Chief Supt Harry Breen and Supt Bob Buchanan were killed in an ambush in south Armagh minutes after leaving the Dundalk station on March 20th, 1989.
Mr Justice Peter Smithwick said he was disappointed Mr Carty had not attended, adding that for a former "very senior officer to treat correspondence with the tribunal with that sort of contempt is very, very wrong".
However, he said Mr Carty should be given another opportunity to appear before the tribunal at a date to be set later this month, but added he would take a "very, very strong view" if Mr Carty did not appear.
Mary Laverty, senior counsel for the tribunal, said correspondence had been forwarded to Mr Carty on seven occasions, one of which contained a summons to attend the tribunal.
The correspondence, sent to an address in Celbridge, Kildare since March of this year, however, there has been no correspondence from him to the tribunal since that date.
She said, on two occasions registered letters were delivered to his Kildare address and signed variously by a Kevin Carty and K Carty, and that these signatures matched.
She said she was "at a loss" as to an explanation why Mr Carthy had not attended.
Dermot McGuinness, SC representing the Garda Commissioner, noted Mr Carthy was no longer employed by An Garda following his retirement last year, however, he said it was understood that Mr Carty currently resides in Vienna where he is involved in various international policing operations.
In 2003 Mr Carty was appointed as a Special Advisor to the Independent Panel on the Safety and Security of UN Personnel in Iraq, which was tasked to examine the implications for the UN security system arising out of the bomb attack on the UN headquarters in Baghdad on August 19th 2003.
The Smithwick tribunal was set up in 2005 to investigate suggestions that a garda or gardaí at Dundalk Garda station colluded in the IRA murder of Chief Supt Breen and Supt Buchanan.