A witness at the Morris tribunal said yesterday she had no concept of dates, time, height or distance, under cross-examination by a garda accused of planting materials that could be used as explosives.
Ms Ciara McLaughlin was being cross-examined by Supt Kevin Lennon, who is representing himself at the tribunal. Ms McLaughlin has accused the superintendent and Det Garda Noel McMahon of carrying "cement bag shaped" heavy black bags from a house in The Crescent, Buncrana, Co Donegal, in the mid-1990s.
However, she was unable to say when she saw the men, what time of day it was or what season of the year she witnessed their alleged activity. Ms McLaughlin also lived in the The Crescent at the time.
"It was you, you were there, I know it was you, I'm not taking it back. I know what I seen," Ms McLaughlin said.
She claims the men carried the black bags from the flat of key witness and alleged Garda informer, Ms Adrienne McGlinchey, who allegedly had links to subversives.
Ms McLaughlin said she saw black bags in Ms McGlinchey's flat containing fertiliser and white powder, which she believed to be "cement lime".
Ms McGlinchey has accused Garda McMahon and Supt Lennon of planting fertiliser, which could be used as explosives, in various locations in Donegal in 1993 and 1994. The superintendent told Ms McLaughlin yesterday he was not stationed in Buncrana during the period she claims to have seen him there.
During Supt Lennon's cross-examination of Ms McLaughlin the tribunal chairman, Mr Justice Morris, interrupted and told the witness her answers to the superintendent's questions were unsatisfactory.
"Stop repeating yourself," he told her. "It's not good enough for you to answer: 'I haven't a clue, I haven't a clue, I haven't a clue'. That's not good enough . . . make an effort to answer the question."
Supt Lennon put it to Ms McLaughlin she had displayed a "selective memory" during her evidence, that she was "changing evidence to suit the story" and was "willing to tell lies".
She denied this. However, she admitted that in the mid-1990s she was receiving money from Ms McGlinchey and agreed to supply false tip-offs about Ms McGlinchey to Buncrana gardaí for "a bit of craic".
She was receiving money from Buncrana-based Det Garda Noel Jones at the same time, she said, for supplying him with information about Ms McGlinchey.
She agreed with Supt Lennon she had been a drug-addicted alcoholic gambler at the time, with a "broken-down family" and willing to take money from any source.
Ms McLaughlin is a 28-year-old mother of six.
Supt Lennon put it to Ms McLaughlin her identification of him at The Crescent in Buncrana "is so distorted it is incredible". "It was you, I will maintain that till the day I die," she replied.
Retired Det Garda Denis Doherty told the tribunal he considered Ms McGlinchey "an attention seeker" when he worked in Buncrana. She and some of her associates would "run aimlessly" from certain parts of the town, particularly at night. He was aware that Ms McGlinchey "was allegedly providing information" on the IRA to gardaí. But in his opinion if someone was in an illegal organisation they would not run around drawing attention to themselves.
He never saw her in the company of anybody believed to be involved in terrorism, but could not conclusively say she had never been in the company of such people. He understood Garda McMahon was Ms McGlinchey's handler. He added that a tripod-type device recovered from Ms McGlinchey, and produced at the tribunal yesterday, seemed too light to be of use to a terrorist organisation.
The tribunal adjourned until Monday.
