Two faxes sent to a senior opposition politician in order to discredit the Carty team investigating Garda corruption in Co Donegal were typed with the knowledge and on behalf of Raphoe publican Frank McBrearty snr, the Morris tribunal heard.
Fine Gael spokesman Jim Higgins TD brought the first fax to the attention of the then minister for justice, John O'Donoghue, in June 2001, and later discovered the second fax to the Morris tribunal.
"It is clear from both faxes that they come from the same source, and they target the Carty team, and particularly John White, with a view to discrediting them and with a view to destroying their reputations," lawyer Maireád Carey told the inquiry during closing submissions on behalf of former detective John White. "I think it is equally clear from the investigation carried out by the tribunal that there wasn't a shred of truth in any of the allegations contained in those faxes."
Expert evidence showed there were typographical similarities between the faxes and letters typed by PJ Togher, a former garda who worked for Mr McBrearty snr, Ms Carey argued.
"It is our submission that Mr Togher wasn't on a frolic of his own, that he was indeed working with Mr McBrearty in relation to the making of these false allegations and other false allegations," Ms Carey said. She said Mr McBrearty snr claimed he received the documents anonymously in the post, but could not explain why, if they were addressed to Mr Higgins, they were not sent directly to him.
The documents were "grossly defamatory" of Mr White, and led to investigations by senior gardaí and the tribunal, which had shown that Mr White was "a diligent and honest investigator and that the allegations contained in the fax were completely without foundation".
"It is our submission that in relation to the manner in which the faxes were dealt with, in that they were given to senior politicians, it gave the allegations within them an air of credibility, and it gave comfort to journalists who couldn't in normal circumstances have printed an anonymous allegation with such defamatory statements in it," Ms Carey said. "It allowed them to print the allegations in fact as if they were true and if there were some substance to them.
"Mr McBrearty rather likes to portray himself as a man who has suffered a grave injustice," Ms Carey said. "What we say is that the faxes and the subsequent correspondence show that he didn't care much about what damage or injustice he did to anybody else in pursuing his aims."
Lawyers for Mr Higgins and then Labour justice spokesman Brendan Howlin said they had behaved responsibly in privately bringing the allegations to the attention of Mr O'Donoghue rather than going public with them to the press or under privilege in the Dáil.
Kevin D'Arcy, for Mr Togher, said "at very best, it was nothing more than a mere assumption" for Mr Higgins to state that he believed his client was the source of the information in the faxed document. The tribunal resumes on July 9th.