Wife claims detective put a gun to her head

The Morris Tribunal: The estranged wife of a detective broke down at the Morris tribunal yesterday while telling of an incident when her husband put a gun to her head.

Ms Sheenagh McMahon said she and her husband had "some sort of row" in mid-1995 and he had slept in the spare room. When his colleague Garda John O'Keeffe called to collect him for work, she could not wake her husband and asked his colleague to do so.

Garda O'Keeffe also failed to wake him and left to collect something at the station. "Noel got up in a rage," and said she had no right to let the garda into the room. Ms McMahon claimed he then kicked and punched her and took out his gun. "He put it to my head and he told me he would blow my brains out." She believed the gun was loaded and said he then pulled the hammer back and the gun clicked. His colleague then returned and Det Garda McMahon "left quickly".

Counsel for the tribunal, Mr Paul McDermott SC, said it might be suggested that she had "made up" the story about the gun.

"I certainly did not make it up. I wouldn't make up something like that," she said.

This incident led Ms McMahon to take out a protection order against her husband, but she did not tell her solicitor about the gun. The hearing for the barring order was scheduled for Moville district court on June 5th, 1995. Ms McMahon said she got "an awful surprise" when her husband arrived with five gardaí, including Supt Lennon. She had believed these gardaí were friends but when she saw them, she said to herself "this is the Garda club arriving now".

She was then told the gardaí were there to take her children from her. At this point, she told her solicitor about the gun. She later learned that her husband had wanted to fight the barring order, but when Supt Lennon heard about the gun, he told him to consent to it, because she "was liable to come out with anything".

Det Garda McMahon told her Supt Lennon feared she might say something about their activities with informant Ms Adrienne McGlinchey. Supt Lennon said he would "do her" under the Official Secrets Act if she named Ms McGlinchey. Her husband had also told her never to talk about Ms McGlinchey "because I might endanger her life".

Ms McMahon said her life had improved considerably since that time. She had received treatment for alcohol abuse and now worked with victims of domestic violence.