COURT REPORT:FORMER IRA leader Brendan McFarlane was yesterday cleared of the kidnap of former supermarket executive Don Tidey almost 25 years ago.
The Special Criminal Court discharged the former IRA leader after an application by his counsel, Hugh Hartnett SC, for a direction of acquittal. This followed a statement by prosecuting counsel Fergal Foley that the State was "offering no further evidence".
Earlier the court had ruled inadmissible an alleged admission by McFarlane to gardaí that he had been at the wood in Co Leitrim where Mr Tidey was held captive for 23 days in 1983.
Mr Justice Paul Butler, presiding at the non-jury court with Judge Alison Lindsay and Judge Cormac Dunne, said McFarlane retains the presumption of innocence.
The judge said that the court had heard evidence of "the horrendous kidnapping and physical abuse of Mr Tidey and his son and daughter", which resulted in the killing of a young soldier and an unarmed Garda recruit.
"Although almost a quarter of a century has passed, it is clear . . . from the evidence of Mr Tidey and the attendance in court of the families of the garda and solider that all have suffered greatly," he said.
The acquittal came on day 10 of the trial of the Maze prison escapee. McFarlane (56), of Jamaica St, Belfast, had pleaded not guilty to falsely imprisoning Mr Tidey on dates unknown between November 24th and December 16th, 1983. He also denied possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life at Derrada Wood, Drumcroman, Ballinamore, Co Leitrim, between November 25th and December 16th, 1983, and possession of a firearm for an unlawful purpose between the same dates.
The judge said that the eight interviews conducted by gardaí with the accused at Dundalk Garda station in January 1998 were according "to the norms of the time a decade ago".
However, he said that the interviews were not in accordance with the statutory regulations then in existence in that not all answers given by McFarlane were recorded and not all dates of the interviews were recorded.
The judge said that McFarlane was alleged to have made just one admission - "I was there. You can prove that, but I will not talk about it" - when asked about the events at Derrada Wood.
He said McFarlane had denied giving that response or making the admission. In the course of the next interview carried out by the same gardaí - then Det Garda Bernie Hanley (now retired) and then Det Sgt (now Det Supt) Dominic Hayes - no reference was made to the alleged admission but it was put to him in the course of two further interviews carried out by other gardaí.
Mr Justice Butler said the Garda witnesses insisted the admission was made and have denied any fabrication. He said it was for the court to decide whether the alleged statement should be admitted in evidence. The court had considered all the evidence and, taking into account the denials and refusals of McFarlane to answer questions on the advice of his solicitor, the accused's denial in evidence that he had made the admission, and the defects in recording the statement, the court had a doubt and must exclude the admission.
He said this issue would not have arisen today where interviews are recorded by video.
The trial was told that the evidence against McFarlane consisted of his alleged admission to gardaí in 1998 and fingerprints. The court was told that his fingerprints were found on a milk carton, a plastic container and a cooking pot recovered from the hide used by the kidnap gang.
McFarlane spent 10 years challenging his prosecution in the courts before the trial got underway on June 4th.
He was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1976 in connection with a gun and bomb attack on the Bayardo Bar in Belfast's Shankill Road which killed five people.
During his tenure as officer commanding of the Provisional IRA prisoners at the Maze, 10 prisoners died on hunger strike. He was one of the leaders of the mass break out by 38 IRA prisoners from the jail in September, 1983.
McFarlane was later arrested in Amsterdam in January 1986, extradited to Northern Ireland and released on parole from the Maze in 1997. He was arrested by gardaí outside Dundalk in 1998. He played a leading role in securing republican support for the peace process.
Don Tidey was the chairman and chief executive of Associated British Foods which owned the Quinnsworth chain. He was kidnapped by an IRA gang in 1983 outside his south Dublin home and rescued after 23 days in captivity. A trainee garda, Gary Sheehan (20) of Carrickmacross, Co Monaghan, and a member of the Defence Forces, Pte Patrick Kelly (35) from Moate, Co Westmeath, were killed in a shoot-out with the kidnap gang when Mr Tidey was rescued.