Former senior garda denies allegations of victimising colleague

A former Garda assistant commissioner has told a tribunal of his expectation that if a garda learnt of a threat to a person’s life, he would report it to his superiors and have it recorded on the Pulse system.

Retired assistant commissioner Al McHugh was giving evidence on Wednesday to the Disclosures Tribunal, sitting in Dublin Castle.

The inquiry is investigating whether now retired Sergeant William Hughes was victimised after he alleged a "systems failure" within the Garda in the run-up to the murder of Baiba Saulite, a mother-of-two who was shot dead at her home in Swords, Co Dublin, in November 2006.

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Ms Saulite, who had been the victim of domestic violence and was involved in a custody dispute concerning her two children, was shot dead at her home on November 19th, 2006.

The tribunal has heard that Sgt Hughes and a colleague, Garda Declan Nyhan, were given a hand-written draft victim impact statement by Ms Saulite five days before her murder. In it she spoke of fears for her safety at the hands of Mr A.

After it was given to him, the statement was put inside Sgt Hughes’ locker in Swords Garda station where it remained until after her murder.

‘Refute and reject’

In a statement previously made to tribunal investigators, Mr McHugh said: “I totally refute and reject” allegations against him by Sgt Hughes.

Asked on Wednesday by Diarmaid McGuinness SC, counsel for the tribunal, about allegedly reading Ms Saulite’s statement and then telling one of Sgt Hughes’ superiors that he [the sergeant] had “nothing to worry about”, Mr McHugh replied: “I conveyed no such message like that.”

He said that on October 11th, 2006 he had learnt of a threat to the life of John Hennessy, Ms Saulite's solicitor.

The threat was a very definitive one, he told the tribunal, but he was “definitively” not aware of any threat to Ms Saulite.

Two or three days after Ms Saulite’s murder, he learned of her statement and ordered colleagues in Swords station to force open, if necessary, Sgt Hughes’ locker and get it. They did and faxed it to him.

Concerned for life

“I found huge concerns in it where she said that at the moment, she was concerned for her life,” he told the tribunal.

The statement was made “three or four days before the unfortunate woman was shot”, he said.

He had told tribunal investigators that the policy about acting on intelligence depended on a number of factors but, where there was a threat to life, “there would be an obligation to report it to one’s line managers”.

He said he would expect an expression of fear to be recorded on Pulse and that the immediacy of the threat would influence the garda response.

He told the tribunal that “one or two days” after he had seen Ms Saulite’s statement, he initiated inquiries about it.

“It wasn’t a spontaneous thing,” he told Mr McGuinness.

On December 6th, 2006, he ordered a preliminary investigation into the statement which would determine what happened next. He asked Chief Superintendent Michael Feehan of Store Street station to carry it out.

He told tribunal investigators: "My information at the time was that retired Sgt Hughes and Garda Nyhan may have been in possession of relevant information regarding a threat to the life of Ms Baiba Saulite. "

On March 26th, 2007, he got a 19 page report back from Supt Feehan.

“It is apparent that there was knowledge in existence and available to An Garda Síochána in relation to threats from [name redacted] to Baiba Saulite,” it concluded. “The members of An Garda Síochána readily admit to this in their reports. . . I recommend that a fully investigation should be carried out into this matter.”

Breach of discipline

On May 3rd, 2007, he asked Supt Feehan to “fully investigate the alleged breaches of discipline” that Sgt Hughes and Garda Nyhan knew or ought to have known of the threat to Ms Saulite and failed in their duty to avoid that risk.

Mr McHugh said he had no motivation in ordering the full inquiry “beyond establishing whether there had been a breach in discipline”.

There were problems in arranging an interview with Sgt Hughes who was citing stress and the Chief Medical Officer was consulted.

In August 2008, then Deputy Commissioner Callanan asked Mr McHugh why no action had been taken on foot of Supt Feehan’s report. In that month, Supt Feehan advised Mr McHugh that it would be “unwise” to interview Sgt Hughes without advice from the CMO.

Sgt Hughes was alleging “bullying and harassment” against him by others in 2003 and 2004.

In February 2009, he alleged further bully and harassment and expressed dis-satisfaction with the garda’s Human Resources Management.

In June 2009, Mr McHugh discontinued the investigation into Sgt Hughes.

“I was unable to find any breach of discipline in respect of Sgt Hughes,” he told the tribunal, adding “I would have been in dereliction if I didn’t carry out an inquiry in view of [Ms Saulite’s] document.”

He said that the inquiry had not been done to “clip the wings” of Sgt Hughes. He said he had not heard of any alleged “systems failure” in relation to Ms Saulite’s murder, as alleged by Sgt Hughes, until “two years ago”.

The tribunal continues.