Expert rejects 'suicide by cop' theory

An expert witness to the Barr tribunal has declined to support the theory that Mr Carthy was attempting to commit "suicide by cop" at the time he was shot dead by gardaí in Abbeylara, Co Longford.

Mr Alan Bailey, a consultant on UK police use of firearms, said the fact that Mr Carthy had fired shots in the direction of the gardaí, and that family members were alleged to have said they feared the 27-year-old would harm himself, did not mean he was suicidal or attempting to provoke police to shoot him.

There had been incidents in the UK where shots had been fired by the subject of a siege with the intent of keeping the police from approaching an area. "In these cases the subject did not have suicidal tendencies," he said.

There had only been one incident in the UK where a verdict of "suicide by the hand of a police officer" had been returned by an inquest and it had happened since the Abbeylara siege of April 2000. In the UK case, the subject had left a note stating his intention to provoke the police to shoot him.

When asked by Mr Diarmuid McGuinness, counsel for the Garda Commissioner, if he would accept there were indicators of provoked shooting in the case of Mr Carthy, Mr Bailey replied, "no I don't think I would".

The phenomenon of provoked shooting was difficult to assess, he said, but, "it would not necessarily immediately be my view that this individual was seeking death at the hands of the police".

Mr Bailey was giving evidence yesterday on his report into the appropriateness of the Garda response at the Abbeylara siege and the likely response of UK police to a similar situation.

He said that if Mr Carthy had acted as he did in a siege involving a UK police force, he may still have been fatally shot. "There is nothing to say that we would not have had a similar outcome to Abbeylara in the UK."

Mr McGuinness put it to Mr Bailey that the dangers associated with the misuse of firearms in the siege had been brought about by Mr Carthy.

Mr Bailey said it had to be considered that the tactical decisions made by the gardaí possibly contributed to the situation.