Former garda not surprised suspect went free

A former Garda commissioner, has told the inquests into the 1972 and 1973 Dublin bombings that it was "not necessarily" surprising that a suspect, for whom there was a photofit identification and fingerprints, was never arrested.

Retired Commissioner Larry Wren said the Garda had always tried to improve on the information they had relating to the atrocities in which three young CIÉ bus workers lost their lives.

However, he told the Dublin City Coroner's Court that he did not recall any attempts to revive the inquiry after the initial Garda investigation had come to a halt. "I don't remember anyone directing a fresh inquiry," he said.

Mr Wren was a chief superintendent working with the Garda C3 unit at the time of the bombings. C3 was not an investigative unit, Mr Wren said, but dealt with matters including information on subversives and was a "conduit" for correspondence between various units of the Garda, the Army, the Government and the RUC.

A 29-year-old bus conductor, Mr Thomas Duffy, and Mr George Bradshaw (24), a bus driver, died when a car bomb exploded at Sackville Place at 8.15 p.m. on December 1st, 1972. Their colleague Mr Thomas Douglas (21), was killed in a second explosion in Sackville Place at 3.15 p.m. on January 20th, 1973.

Mr Cormac Ó Dúlacháin SC, for the victim's families, put it to Mr Wren that shortly after the 1972 attack he had circulated to Army intelligence a photofit of one of the suspected bombers. Fingerprints, believed to be from the same man, had also been collected, Mr Ó Dúlacháin said.

He also said that Mr Wren had had contact with the RUC and had corresponded with retired members of the British security forces. Mr Wren said he had no recollection of any correspondence at this remove.

"There was a photofit of a major suspect in the December 1st bombings and positive finger prints. Is it not surprising that nothing . . . that something did not emerge from this?" Mr Ó Dúlacháin asked.

"Not necessarily, no," Mr Wren replied.

Earlier, the court heard that a car hijacked in Belfast on the morning of December 1st, 1972 was used in the Dublin bombing later that day. A statement from Mr James Stanfield, who did not attend the inquest, described how he was forced from the car and was held in a house for the day.

Mr Stanfield had hired the car for a planned trip to Wicklow. He was driving along the Shankill Road, Belfast, at around 8.50 a.m. when a woman walked out in front of him. He stopped the car and two men approached, pulled him from the driver's seat and forced him into the back seat.

They took his glasses and covered his head. After around 20 minutes driving he was brought to a house. He was not beaten or tortured, the statement said.