A retired detective garda told the Morris tribunal yesterday that at the request of Supt Kevin Lennon he told an internal Garda inquiry he had an investigation file but it did not exist.
Mr Des Walsh, who retired in 1994, said he made a statement to the internal inquiry in 2001 that he had a file on the investigation into an explosives find at the flat of Ms Adrienne McGlinchey and Ms Yvonne Devine in Buncrana in March 1994. However, the file did not exist. He said Supt Lennon, at present suspended, asked him if he would take responsibility for the file.
Tribunal counsel Mr Paul McDermott SC asked him about his statement to the internal Garda disciplinary inquiry in which he said: "I know I had the file on the investigation. When I retired I took it home. I had it in the house for a couple of years and I eventually destroyed it."
When asked about it, Mr Walsh paused and then said: "I have a problem with that. I am going to be truthful with you now.This is very difficult for me to say. I think he [Supt Lennon\] was disciplined for not investigating the file. Well, he told me he was under severe pressure and he asked me if I'd take responsibility for the file."
Mr McDermott asked: "Was there a file?"
Mr Walsh replied: "No, I'd no file. I never had a file."
Mr McDermott asked if Supt Lennon asked him to pretend there was a file.
Mr Walsh replied: "He didn't say 'pretend'. I never had a file. I made a statement to that effect to assist him."
Mr McDermott asked him if Supt Lennon had asked him to say this to get him out of a bind.
Mr Walsh replied: "Yes, he was under pressure."
Mr Walsh said he retired six months after the explosives find in March 1994. He was not asked for a statement at the time. It seemed to him the best thing was to let the matter die a natural death.
Nobody had an interest in Ms McGlinchey. The scene was flawed and nothing was done properly.
Mr McDermott suggested this was all very unusual. Mr Walsh agreed.
Asked had he inquired why the incident had not been pursued, he said he did not.
Mr Walsh said he was innocent. "I took no hand, part or act in anything. I may have been used."
Asked if he thought that was the case, he said he regretted to say that he did.
He said he had been under great stress. He suffered a heart attack over a year ago. "I put it down to this whole escapade," he said.
Mr McDermott also asked about a meeting he had with Ms Sheenagh McMahon, wife of Det Garda Noel McMahon, in March 1999.
Mr Walsh said Ms McMahon said she had enough to bring "these two boys down", meaning her husband and Supt Lennon. "She was using me to get at her husband and Kevin Lennon."
Supt Lennon cross-examined the witness and said he accepted that he had asked Mr Walsh to take responsibility for the file.
Mr Walsh said he accepted that Supt Lennon did not in any way pressurise him into making a false statement. Mr Walsh said he had no knowledge of Supt Lennon doing anything wrong and he had high regard for him.
Mr Cormac Corrigan SC, cross-examining for Ms McMahon,asked if he had loyalty to colleagues rather than Ms McMahon as he had said she told untruths.
Mr Walsh said: "I would have a certain amount of loyalty to them but it wouldn't amount to wrong-doing."
Mr Corrigan said he had signed an "incorrect, inaccurate and untrue statement" to the Garda inquiry. That was wrong.
"I accept it was wrong. I had problems with it," Mr Walsh said.