Category: Morris Tribunal

A bit of a non-story really, but related to the ongoing Morris Tribunal.

About 20 gardai­ and some business people from Sligo turned up in court in 2002 to support a garda who was being prosecuted for submitting forged certificates, the Morris tribunal heard yesterday.

Anthony Barr SC, for the tribunal, asked Insp Gerard Connolly, Sligo, what the purpose was of having so many gardai­ turn up for the court case of John Nicholson.

“Was it the case that Mr Nicholson was in a very public way taking the rap for the seven certificates, when in fact his involvement, according to his evidence here, was much less than the seven?” he asked.

Insp Connolly replied that at that time, Mr Nicholson’s health was very bad.

Mr Barr asked how the presence of gardai­ and a number of business people would help his condition.

“I’d say it was a form of support for Mr Nicholson. He was very supportive to everybody over the years – to colleagues and the public in general,” Insp Connolly replied.

Mr Nicholson, now retired, pleaded guilty to three charges of uttering, or submitting, forged certificates and received the Probation Act.

Meanwhile over at the Morris Tribunal into Garda criminality in Donegal there have been yet more developments. I’ll try and put this in black and white so it’s clear.

A. Garda (retired) John Nicholson says it wasn’t him who forged signatures on earnings certificates.

B. It was, according to Nicholson, his dead colleague John Keogh (who obviously can’t speak for himself).

C. Nicholson pleaded guilty in court and was prosecuted for submitting false certificates in 2002.

Counsel for the Tribunal puts it to the the expert witness:

Paul McDermott SC, for the tribunal, asked: “So your conclusion is that Mr Nicholson essentially forged the name Ben Maguire on four Bernard Conlon certificates?”

Mr Nash said: “That would be correct, my lord. He would have written those.”

Mr McDermott said Mr Nash also concluded that the late garda Keogh had nothing to do with any forgery. “There was no evidence to connect garda Keogh with any signatures or the body of the writing on these documents,” Mr Nash said.

Make up your own mind. The tribunal continues, and this is not a criminal trial.

The tribunal claims it didn’t give the report to McDowell, but I believe he did get it. But how?

The tribunal yesterday took the unusual step of issuing a statement making clear that it has never submitted a secret report to Minister for Justice Michael McDowell.

The statement said that it had come to the attention of the tribunal that a number of media sources had speculated as to whether the tribunal had made a secret report of some matter to the Minister.

“The tribunal has issued two reports: on Explosives Finds in 2004 and on the Barron Death Investigation in 2005. There are no other reports,” it said.

A curious development.

The solicitor for a former garda applied yesterday to cease to represent him, saying his client was in St Patrick’s Psychiatric Hospital.

Retired garda John Nicholson was due to be recalled as a witness yesterday. He pleaded guilty in 2002 and was prosecuted for submitting forged statements of loss of earnings. These were for Bernard Conlon for court appearances in a licensing case against the McBreartys in Co Donegal.

Tom Murphy, solicitor for a number of gardaa­ besides Mr Nicholson, said yesterday he wished to no longer represent him.

Mr Justice Frederick Morris, chairman, said he could only make an order allowing Mr Murphy to come off record if he was satisfied it was appropriate to do so. The reasons should be set out in an affidavit.

“I don’t want to breach confidentiality but I understand that he is at the moment in St Patrick’s hospital, and I feel it is appropriate that if the reason is because of his detention in that institution that I would be grateful if you could provide a medical certificate in the affidavit confirming that fact.”

The chairman said if he had Mr Murphy’s consent he proposed to ask their own medical adviser to examine Mr Nicholson and ensure the order was correct.

Mr Murphy confirmed his client was in St Patrick’s and said he would draft the affidavit and get specific instructions on having the tribunal’s medical adviser examine his client.

The Irish Times reports that the DoJ has settled with Frank McBrearty junior.

The Department of Justice has confirmed that Frank McBrearty junior has settled all claims with the state for a sum of €1.5million.The settlement relates to four claims, two in the name of Mr McBrearty, one in the name of his wife and one joint claim.

Some 47 high court actions by members of the extended Mr McBrearty family had been due to commence on October 18th. The claims relate to alleged malicious prosecution, wrongful arrest, planting of evidence and false arrest. State lawyers conceded liability for damages to McBrearty junior in June last.

The Morris Tribunal is back on, with the expected completion of the current module shortly.

The Morris tribunal resumes today after the summer recess, and over the next two weeks the “silver bullet” module is expected to be completed.

The garda at the centre of allegations of corruption, Det Sgt John White, will for the first time have the chance to give his evidence at the tribunal. He is denying all allegations against him.

Tomorrow, Det White is scheduled to appear in the witness box and is expected to give direct evidence and undergo cross-examination for at least five days.

The module concerns Bernard Conlon’s claim that in 1997 Det White asked him in Raphoe, Co Donegal, to be found drinking after hours on the premises of Frankie’s nightclub, owned by the McBrearty family.

Rabbitte smells blood, a shame we are so close to summer recess for the Dail.

Mr Rabbitte said that as a result of a story in The Irish Times on Saturday, they now knew what had been asserted from the Labour benches was true, “that both the minister for justice of the day (Mr O’Donoghue) and the attorney general of the day (Mr McDowell) had full knowledge from a report submitted by then Deputy Commissioner Conroy in August 2000 of what was happening in Donegal and the circumstances surrounding the framing of the McBrearty family and so on”.

Mr Rabbitte claimed Mr McDowell had created a circumstance where Mr O’Donoghue was on the run and was even not prepared to appear on Questions and Answers when invited. He repeated his assertion that there was a nine-month delay between the time Mr O’Donoghue saw the details of the case and when the tribunal was set up.

Mr Rabbitte said that Assistant Commissioner Conroy had summarised the gravamen of the allegations in a 37-page legible, intelligible report to Mr O’Donoghue and Mr McDowell, “and now they are covering up why they failed to investigate one of the most serious public interest issues in this jurisdiction”.

Mr McDowell, who was sitting on the Government benches, remarked: “That is wrong.”

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said that in February 1999, Assistant Commissioner Carty was appointed by the Garda Commissioner to investigate allegations that gardaa­ in Donegal had engaged in criminal and unethical behaviour.

In July 2000, Assistant Commissioner Carty submitted his report, which was the investigation file, to the DPP. In August 2000, Assistant Commissioner Conroy forwarded a 37-page summary of the Carty report to the Department of Justice. This, said Mr Ahern, was not the Carty report.

Talk about clutching at straws.

The Irish Times has more on the secret report it detailed on Saturday. The Opposition will be looking for a scalp.

The report, details of which were revealed by The Irish Times on Saturday, was sent to the Department of Justice by then deputy commissioner Noel Conroy, who now serves as Garda Commissioner.

Marked “secret”, it contained a summary of Assistant Commissioner Kevin Carty’s investigation into allegations of “criminal and unethical behaviour” by Donegal gardaa­ between 1991 and 1998.

Mr Howlin said it was now beyond doubt that Mr O’Donoghue, the then minister for justice, and Mr McDowell, the then attorney general, had “extensive knowledge of the scale and the serious nature of Garda abuses in Donegal when they were obstructing calls from the Labour Party and others for the establishment of a tribunal of inquiry.

“There is now an obligation on Ministers O’Donoghue and McDowell to explain why, more than a year after they received this report, they insisted on voting down an Opposition motion in November 2001 that would have provided for the establishment of such an inquiry.” Both Labour and Fine Gael are due to raise to raise the matter at leaders’ questions tomorrow.

Fine Gael’s justice spokesman Jim O’Keeffe said: “There appear to be inconsistencies between what was said then and what is said now. Things just don’t add up.

“Clearly the Government, including Mr O’Donoghue and Mr McDowell, had enough evidence to set up the tribunal far, far earlier than they did. Explanations are required from both ministers as to why they so doggedly resisted setting up an inquiry for so long.” However, representatives for the two Ministers dismissed the allegations.

There are lame apologies, and then there are lame apologies.

‘I am thus authorised on behalf of the defendants to apologise to you for the offending conduct by such members of An Garda Siochana as found by Mr Justice Morris in his second interim report.

‘I am also authorised to express regret for the same and the injury, damage and distress to which your client has thereby been exposed over a substantial period of time.â€?

The response of the McBreartys is summarised by the SBP.

In response, McBrearty’s lawyers wrote back saying that he was “disgusted to realise that, when the defendants came to finally “admit liability’, they have done so in such a conditional and supine manner as to remove its supposed benefit”.

Their civil action against the State will now go ahead.