A senior manager with a British intelligence agency set up to combat crime has strongly denied suggestions its agents were involved in the entrapment of an Irishman at the centre of a conspiracy to obtain an arsenal of weapons for a criminal gang in Limerick.
Carol Jenner of the UK's Serious Organised Crime Agency strongly denied a suggestion by defence counsel Padraig Dwyer that its agents had "entrapped" and "set up" 27-year-old Glen Geasley in relation to a conspiracy to procure high-powered weaponry.
Mr Geasley and another co-accused, Seán Callinan (21), both deny three conspiracy charges and a fourth charge of attempting to possess a haul of rocket launchers, assault rifles, submachine guns and semi- automatic pistols seized in Cork last year.
When opening the State's case, prosecution counsel Tom O'Connell SC had said the jury would hear evidence of how Mr Geasley met two undercover agents, named John and Raj, at a London warehouse on February 22nd, 2007, when they showed him the weapons on a laptop.
Yesterday, at Cork Circuit Criminal Court, defence counsel for Mr Geasley, Mr Dwyer SC put it to Ms Jenner in cross-examination that her "agents and officers had entrapped Mr Geasley and set him up for these very serious crimes".
However, Ms Jenner said, "I completely and utterly refute that." Following several questions where Ms Jenner claimed privilege in respect of her replies, Mr Dwyer said he was concerned the evidence about such matters that the jury would not hear would deny them "a full picture as regards the innocence or guilt of Mr Geasley".
Judge Patrick Moran told the jury that the issue of what was privileged had been discussed by both sides in their absence on Wednesday and he had made a ruling that details of contacts between the Garda and the agency prior to February 22nd, 2007, were privileged.
During cross-examination, Ms Jenner said that agents had to tread a fine line between showing enthusiasm for their undercover operation and becoming an agent provocateur inciting crime, but she was satisfied they were well-aware of the dangers of crossing that line.
Cross-examined by Blaise O'Carroll SC, for Mr Callinan, Ms Jenner denied suggestions that she was in anyway like Ms Moneypenny in James Bond movies, and rejected a suggestion by Mr O'Carroll that the undercover agents were like "Shakespearean strolling players".
The agency required its officers to do a very difficult job going undercover when a conspiracy is already in train, she said. "We ask them to put their lives at risk in a covert role . . . it's a very dangerous job and a number of people have been seriously hurt." Ms Jenner also confirmed neither John nor Raj had any criminal convictions.
