A Garda Sergeant who denies he improperly planted firearms six years ago at a travellers camp site at Burnfoot, Co Donegal has secured a High Court order preventing his prosecution.
The order applies pending the determinaiton of Sgt John White's legal claim that he cannot receive a fair trial because of the failure of the gardai to preserve, and provide him with, material evidence.
Sgt John White, with an address in Ballybofey, Co Donegal claims the State has acknowledged that it has lost 15 of 28 audio tapes which gardai seized from his house in June 2004.
He also claims that, out of 62 original documents which were requested, 48 had been lost, mislaid or were not available.
Among the material which Sgt White claims is missing is a tape which, his solicitor claims, would show he had bona fide information that the shotgun was to be found at the traveller camp.
Mr Damien Crawford, for Sgt White, said the principal evidence against his client came from statements made by a colleague, Garda Thomas Kilcoyne.
In an affidavit, Sgt White's solicitor, Mr Patrick A Dorrian, said it was clear from Garda Kilcoyne' statements that, if his account was correct, then he too was an active participant in the commission of the alleged crime. Yet to Sgt White's knowledge, Garda Kilcoyne had never been charged with any offence by the DPP.
Sgt White believed his life had been placed in jeopardy as a result of Garda Kilcoyne's statement and through the decision of those who took the statement from Garda Kilcoyne to break the confidentiality of the informant concerned and the other participants.
Sgt White believed he would not received a fair trial and that it would proceed on the uncorroborated evidence of Garda Kilcoyne.