Morris tribunal:The chairman of the Morris tribunal has said he will have to consider whether he can hear the evidence of two retired Cork gardaí who say they witnessed secret bugging of conversations between prisoners and visitors in 1992.
John White, the detective sergeant dismissed after he was criticised by three Morris tribunal reports, has given examples of covert recording of conversations between prisoners and visitors in Garda stations, which he says was rampant within the force.
Mr White said the first time he saw secret recording was when, as a young detective working on a case in Wexford, he walked into a conference room where some senior officers were listening to a conversation between a suspect and a priest. Mr White also said he had heard of another case involving gardaí in Co Kilkenny.
The tribunal is examining Mr White's allegation that private conversations were bugged on the day that six people, including cousins Frank McBrearty jnr and Mark McConnell, were arrested during the inquiry into the death of cattle dealer Richie Barron.
Other officers deny any knowledge of or involvement in the secret recording of prisoners in custody, which Mr White says occurred. Mr White told the tribunal that the practice, known as "boxing", could not have been so widespread without the knowledge and assent of senior gardaí.
The former sergeant also said that two Cork gardaí would give evidence that they had seen similar activities during a case in 1992. "This will establish that it did happen. Not that it may have happened, or anything else. People who were uninvolved in the Donegal case can say categorically that it did happen. They saw and heard it," Mr White said.
"It's something I'm going to have to consider, it's the extent of my terms of reference," tribunal chairman Mr Justice Frederick Morris said.
"My terms of reference require me to inquire into what happened in Co Donegal on this occasion. How far outside that I am entitled to go, I am going to have to consider." Mr White told the chairman it would be "very unfair to make a finding against me if these people weren't heard".