The detective at the heart of allegations of bogus arms finds in Donegal a decade ago has said he did not see anything wrong in being involved in the taking of a statement from his estranged wife withdrawing allegations made against him in 1999.
Det Garda Noel McMahon said his estranged wife, Mrs Sheenagh McMahon, requested that his GRA representative, Garda Martin Leonard, take the withdrawal after she told him she was unhappy with her statement to the Carty inquiry team.
In her statement, Mrs McMahon outlined a series of allegations against her husband, which are now the subject of the tribunal.
"Was it appropriate that you, as the subject of a Garda investigation, with your GRA representative Martin Leonard should take a statement withdrawing allegations against you?" tribunal lawyer Mr Paul McDermott SC, asked the detective.
"I didn't see anything inappropriate in acceding to her request that she deal with Martin Leonard," Det Garda McMahon replied. "So it doesn't seem wrong for the subject of an inquiry and his adviser to be involved in the taking of a statement?" "No Sir, at the time it just seemed natural to go with her request and that's the way she requested." The detective said his wife was "dissatisfied" with her statement but "I can't say she came out with a straightforward comment that it was wrong". Det Garda McMahon is one of two detectives alleged to have prepared explosives, together with Ms Adrienne McGlinchey, that later turned up in bogus garda arms finds.
Both Det Garda McMahon and Supt Kevin Lennon, also suspended, have denied the claims and Ms McGlinchey has persistently maintained she was never an informer. Det Garda McMahon said he was in Gallagher's Hotel after a family court hearing in Letterkenny when his estranged wife approached him. "She was going to withdraw her statement and wanted to do it with Garda Leonard," he said. He told the tribunal Mrs McMahon "was somewhat upset, very down in herself, not in the best form I've ever seen her." He said he had not contacted Garda Leonard. "I certainly didn't telephone him. To my recollection he was there on District Court business."
Mrs McMahon's solicitor, Mr Niall Sheridan, told the tribunal last year that Garda Leonard approached him outside the court and told him Mrs McMahon was going to withdraw her allegations.
Mr Sheridan said he told Garda Leonard that Mrs McMahon was not in a condition to make a statement. She was "agitated and under some pressure", Mr Sheridan said in his evidence.
"I became aware that Mr Sheridan had expressed to Sheenagh that she shouldn't do it," Det Garda McMahon said. "She seemed very insistent that she wanted to do it that day."
Garda Leonard and a trainee garda called to the McMahon family home later that afternoon, where he took a statement from Mrs McMahon withdrawing her allegations to the Carty inquiry.
Det McMahon said his wife later told him that the Carty team were "putting pressure on her to put the statement back in", but denied putting any pressure on her himself.
On December 2nd, 1999, Mrs McMahon reinstated her original statement to the Carty inquiry.