The Special Criminal Court will rule tomorrow on an application by lawyers for former IRA leader Brendan “Bik’’ Mr McFarlane to have alleged admissions made by him to gardaí ruled inadmissible in evidence.
Hugh Hartnett SC submitted that the alleged admissions made by his client Mr McFarlane after his arrest in Dundalk in 1998 in relation to the kidnap of supermarket executive Don Tidey should not be admitted in evidence.
Mr Hartnett said that evidence given by retired Detective Superintendent John McElligot during a bail application by Mr McFarlane in January 1998 was that the main evidence against him was fingerprint evidence.
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| Mr McFarlane has pleaded not guilty to falsely imprisoning Don Tidey |
He submitted that Mr McElligot at no stage made any reference to alleged admissions made by Mr McFarlane.
Mr Hartnett submitted that Mr McElligot made no reference to the “verbal’’ statement and he suggested this was because the alleged “verbal’’ was not in existence at that time.
He asked the court to consider why this “crucial evidence’’ was not mentioned during the bail application in January 1998.
He said that there was a conflict of evidence between Mr McFarlane who said that he had not made the alleged statements and the gardaí who said he had.
“The verbal is short. It is a one line admission,’’ Mr Hartnett added.
The court has heard evidence from two Garda Detectives that Mr McFarlane said to them he was “prepared for the big one’’ and “I am prepared for the worst’’ and allegedly told them: “I was there. You can prove that
but I will not talk about it.’’
It was the ninth day of the trial of the Maze prison escapee.
Mr McFarlane(56), a father of three, of Jamaica Street in Belfast was arrested outside Dundalk and charged in January 1998.
He has pleaded not guilty to falsely imprisoning Don Tidey on dates unknown between November 24th and December 16th, 1983.
He also denies possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life at Derrada Wood, Drumcroman, Ballinamore, Co Leitrim between November 25th and December 16th, 1983 and possession of a firearm for an unlawful purpose between the same dates.
Mr Tidey was kidnapped by an IRA gang in 1983 and rescued after 23 days in captivity.
A trainee garda and a member of the Defence Forces were killed in a shoot out with the kidnap gang when Mr Tidey was rescued.