BARR TRIBUNAL: After John Carthy was shot dead, the chief Garda negotiator admitted to Mr Carthy's cousin "we fucked it up", it was alleged at the Barr Tribunal yesterday.
Mr Thomas Walsh, a cousin and neighbour of Mr Carthy, said Insp Michael Jackson, then with the Emergency Response Unit (ERU), had told him this five days after the shooting.
Mr Raymond Comyn SC, for the tribunal, said Insp Jackson denied uttering such words.
Mr Walsh said five days after the shooting which occurred on April 20th, 2000, members of the ERU had returned to the Carthy house in Abbeylara, Co Longford. He said he had asked Insp Jackson what had happened.
"He said 'Between you and me we fucked it up', that's what he said," Mr Walsh told the tribunal.
Mr Comyn asked why he had not mentioned this in previous statements.
Mr Walsh said his first statement to the Garda internal inquiry only went up to the time he identified his cousin in the morgue. After that he had forgotten. Then, as it was said man-to-man, he felt badly about it. "Even today I feel bad about saying it."
Mr Diarmaid McGuinness SC, for the Garda Commissioner, cross-examining, asked: "Have you made up this allegation?"
Mr Walsh said: "No, I have not made up this allegation. I came up here to tell you the truth."
Asked why he wanted to say it now, Mr Walsh replied: "Because it was said man-to-man and I'm only saying it now because the tribunal is bigger than my feelings."
Mr McGuinness asked if he did not consider it of greater importance to put it in the statements.
Mr Walsh said: "He said it to me man-to-man I didn't want to say it ever. He said it to me in confidence. Now, he did say it and if the rest of them were as honest as Mr Jackson was, we would not be sitting here now."
Asked if he put any significance on the remark himself, Mr Walsh said: "Oh, I do but, sure, it's obvious they fucked it up."
Mr McGuinness said Mr Walsh met Insp Jackson once.
"Yes, but I could see a sincerity in his eye and I liked him," Mr Walsh said.
Mr McGuinness said Insp Jackson fired two shots.
"Mr Jackson tried to take him [Mr Carthy\] alive, that's the way I look at it," Mr Walsh said.
Asked if he could have misunderstood what Insp Jackson said, Mr Walsh replied: "No, he said 'you're going to hear a lot of bullshit, it's bad for yeez but believe me it's bad for us as well'."