The events in the Special Criminal Court yesterday, when those accused of the murder of Det Garda Jerry McCabe changed their plea and pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter, will profoundly disturb all who claim adherence to the rule of law in this State. It is a disturbing and distressing development.
The lesser charge of manslaughter may suit the purpose of those who want to buttress the Belfast Agreement. It will, assuredly, suit the purpose of the Provisionals who do not wish to see their colleagues convicted of capital murder and subject to a mandatory 40-year sentence. Remarkably, Mr P.J. Stone, the general secretary of the Garda Representative Association, does not demur when an RTE interviewer suggests that this was a "good result" for the Garda. Despite the assurances repeated by the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, the concern must be that the killers of Det Garda McCabe will, indeed, be eligible for early release under the terms of the Belfast Agreement. The whole business will dismay the average citizen. If this is the kind of moral compromise that we must make, it raises the most serious questions about the entire route in which we are headed.
Det Garda Jerry McCabe was killed at 6.50 a.m. on the morning of June 7th, 1996, as he and a colleague, Det Garda Ben O'Sullivan, escorted a post office SDS van while it made deliveries in the Limerick area. The chilling evidence given to the Special Criminal Court by Det Garda O'Sullivan, as he recalled the activity of men dressed in black and green camouflage battle-dress and armed with Kalashnikov rifles, bears repetition: "In an instant, without any warning, without any opportunity for us to protect the SDS van, one of them opened fire". Det Garda O'Sullivan said the fire was automatic fire and there was silence between each blast.
"I saw Jerry's hands going into a spasm....I was conscious that Jerry was in great difficulty." Those charged with the killing of Det Garda McCabe in these circumstances will this morning be sentenced on manslaughter charges. To most people, the murder of Det Garda McCabe must surely merit something more than the secondary charge of an unintended killing. Most will concur with the view so robustly expressed by Michael Noonan of Fine Gael on RTE Radio yesterday: "Murder is murder", he said.
In truth, the trial for the murder of Det Garda Jerry McCabe has been, to put it at its mildest, unorthodox. Witnesses who made statements to the Garda in advance of the trial told the court that they could no longer recollect anything: there has been evidence to suggest that witnesses were interfered with and intimidated. In all of this, the State is vulnerable to the charge that it adopted a laissez faire approach. From what is known, no witness protection programme - of the kind available in criminal trials - was made available for witnesses in this case.
It may be that there is another explanation for yesterday's events. It may be that the State, fearing the acquittal of some of those charged, opted for a guilty plea on the lesser charge. At the very least, the State has an obligation to explain the reasons for the decision, given the very serious issues involved. The public is being asked to accept that Det Garda Jerry McCabe, who died when an IRA gang fired 15 shots into his car on that fateful day in Adare, was a victim of manslaughter. It is an insult to the memory of a Garda officer, who was discharging his duty for the greater good of society.