THE Garda Press Office yesterday released a statement detailing the sequence of events which led to the loss of the warrant sent to the Garda from New Scotland Yard one April 12th seeking the extradition of Mr Anthony Duncan.
The total documentation in question, the original warrant and other documents, consisted of five pages, the statement said. The statement continued:
"All of the documentation was photocopied a number of times, and excess copies were disposed of perhaps shredded.
"It has now been established that only the front of the original warrant was photocopied. These copies could not and did not contain the certificates contained on the back of the original.
"It is accepted that the original warrant was disposed of with the excess copies.
"Being unaware that the original was disposed of a copy then `took on the life of the life' of the original. This was processed in the normal way, subsequently being submitted to court as the original.
"This whole issue has been investigated by a senior officer, from outside the branch which deals with extradition, and until it could be unequivocally established what in fact happened, it would have been unwise to reach any conclusions. The delay in finalising this investigation was due primarily to the unavailability of key personnel in the UK and here.
"The Minister for Justice was informed of the conclusions of the investigation on Tuesday, May 21st, 1996.
"The mistake was a Garda mistake and was caused by human error. Senior management in New Scotland Yard has been made aware of our findings. This incident will not in any way affect the professional co operation which exists between UK police and the Garda Siochana.
"As a consequence, changes have been made to ensure that errors of this kind will not reoccur.
"In this context, it is important to bear in mind that the Garda Siochana handle, on a weekly basis, hundreds of original documents of all sorts without mishap."