A former garda, Mr Denis Kelly, has alleged in the High Court that he has been harassed by the Garda and accused of involvement in the murder of Det Garda Jerry McCabe. Mr Kelly denies any such involvement.
Mr Justice Lavan yesterday adjourned proceedings brought by Mr Kelly, of Barrow East, Ardfert, Co Kerry, against the Garda and the State.
Mr Kelly, who resigned from the Garda in 1991, pleaded guilty at the Special Criminal Court in January 1992 to a charge of having possession of a document contrary to the Official Secrets Act.
At the time, a second charge of passing information to a named convicted member of the IRA was withdrawn by the State. He was sentenced to five years' imprisonment and released, with remission, in July 1995. He is now an insurance agent.
In his action, Mr Kelly claims that road traffic summonses issued against him are a form of Garda harassment. He got permission last January from the High Court to apply by way of judicial review for an order to restrain the DPP from proceeding with the summonses. The Garda and the State are opposing his claims and deny his allegations.
In court yesterday, Mr Kelly applied for an order to prohibit the DPP proceeding with any road traffic summonses against him in the District Court and to restrain the Garda from harassing or intimidating him until after his judicial review application was decided by the court.
Mr Feichin McDonagh, for the authorities, told Mr Justice Lavan the Garda denied there was any impropriety on its part. He said Mr Kelly was making "a scandalous claim" that no District Court judge would do him justice or believe his evidence and would believe the evidence of gardai in relation to the road traffic summonses. Mr Justice Lavan adjourned Mr Kelly's application for an interlocutory restraining order until the hearing of the judicial review proceedings.
At an earlier court hearing, Mr Kelly said in an affidavit that on his release from prison, he was initially successful in getting a job as a gym instructor at a hotel until informed by management that as a result of approaches by gardai, the post was no longer open to him. Gardai, he said, had also made approaches to his present employer to have him dismissed.
Mr Kelly said he did not expect a District Court judge to listen to, far less take account of his claims. It was his experience that such a judge would invariably accept Garda evidence.