Barr TribunalThe head of the Garda Press Office said he was aware RTÉ was going to name Mr John Carthy some minutes before the Five Seven Live broadcast during which the name was revealed, but was unable to stop the interview.
Supt John Farrelly told the tribunal he decided to go ahead with the interview but felt "caught in a trap".
The producer of the RTÉ current affairs show, Mr Niall O'Flynn, who was reporting from the scene in Abbeylara, told Supt Farrelly minutes before he was due to be interviewed on the programme that Mr Carthy was going to be named and that prerecorded interviews with local people who knew the 27-year-old, would be played.
"This was the first knowledge I had of this proposal and I became annoyed," he said. "I was certainly shocked to know he was going to be named and I was certainly shocked there was going to be a vox pop."
He said he objected, but Mr O'Flynn told him an editorial decision had been made. Supt Farrelly said although he was unhappy with both the naming of Mr Carthy and the "vox pops" with locals, he decided not to pull out of the interview.
"I was caught in a trap. I had to make a decision. I could either walk away or continue in the vein I had been doing other interviews."
The local people interviewed by Mr O'Flynn revealed personal information about Mr Carthy, including that he had recently broken up with his girlfriend.
Supt Farrelly said this was "dangerous information" and if he had advance notice that personal information was to be divulged he would have asked that the tape not be played. In the minutes before the programme he felt there was nothing he could do "unless I physically pulled the plug".
In his statement to the tribunal, read by tribunal counsel Mr Michael McGrath, Mr O'Flynn said Supt Farrelly made "no attempt to dissuade me" from naming Mr Carthy. Mr O'Flynn said Supt Farrelly did seem annoyed, but he said, "my recollection is clear, Supt Farrelly said nothing significant at all".
Supt Farrelly told the tribunal he was annoyed and had said to Mr O'Flynn, "You're not going to name him?" but did not make any demands. "I expressed surprise; in my view that was sufficient."
Counsel for RTÉ Mr Patrick Hanratty put it to Supt Farrelly that Mr Carthy had already been named in that morning's country edition of the Irish Independent.
"By the morning of the 20th of April, it was already in the public realm," he said, and Mr O'Flynn had to make an editorial decision knowing Mr Carthy's name was already in the media.
Supt Farrelly, who earlier said he had not known about the Irish Independent article at the time, said he did not know if Mr O'Flynn had been aware of it.
However, he said he saw Mr Carthy's name being broadcast as a different matter to it being printed. "It is different because Mr Carthy didn't have access to the newspapers. It was only in relation to the broadcast media he could have picked it up."
