A senior garda today revealed to the Morris tribuncal that he had raised concerns with a custody officer over a vigorous interview after hearing loud voices in a garda interrogation room.
Det Sgt Sylvester Henry admitted querying the raised voices in the room next to where he was interviewing Charlotte Peoples on December 4th, 1996 in Letterkenny Garda Station.
Mrs Peoples has told the tribunal she was upset after hearing roaring in the interrogation room where her cousin Roisin McConnell was being interviewed.
The Raphoe woman was detained after her husband, Michael Peoples, was brought in for questioning in relation to the death which was later deemed a hit-and-run.
Det Sgt Henry said: "After the interview was over, for example I went to Gda (Martin) Leonard, who was the member in charge, and I asked him 'Is everything ok next door?'."
He added: "There is a line I suppose that you might say, you don't go over in relation to the interview, so were we at that line."
Det Sgt Henry said he raised his concerns with Gda Leonard as he believed the garda protocol in interviews was close to being breached.
"I said 'Is everything ok next door?', I said 'Are you sure?', he said 'yeah, yeah'," Det Sgt Henry said.
Det Sgt Henry said: "As I said when we started the interview, I said to her, Mrs Peoples or Charlotte, I am in charge of the people that are going to be interviewing you, you will be treated in a proper manner."
After hearing loud voices, he said: "I did reassure her again that time and I says, 'look you can rest assured that as far as I am concerned and as long as I am here nothing will happen to you'."
He admitted that she was apprehensive that something was going on next door.
The detective sergeant said: "Obviously it was a fairly vigorous interview, and from the point of view of somebody who was never in a garda station before they might find it a lot more (stressful) than somebody who would have call to be there."
Det Sgt Henry said he believed the source of the raised voice was Det Sgt John White.
Det Gda John Dooley and Det Sgt John White have admitted at the tribunal to psychologically torturing Mrs McConnell and Katrina Brolly during their interviews.