Garda negotiator showed blatant disregard of training, says SC

Barr tribunal: The national Garda negotiator showed an "ignorance" and a "blatant disregard" of his negotiations training during the Abbeylara siege, counsel for the family of the late Mr John Carthy told the Barr tribunal.

Mr Michael O'Higgins SC said that Det Insp Michael Jackson had demonstrated that he was "not up to speed" as a negotiator when he attended the armed standoff in April 2000, which ended in Mr Carthy being shot dead by gardaí outside his home in Abbeylara, Co Longford.

Det Insp Jackson (then a detective sergeant) had completed a negotiators' course with the London Metropolitan police in the previous month.

The tribunal had learnt that two prerequisites of negotiation were the formation of a negotiating team and the establishment of a negotiation "cell" or base at a remove from the immediate scene, Mr O'Higgins said.

Det Insp Jackson did neither of these things, Mr O'Higgins said, because he lacked experience and had failed to bring his notes from the Metropolitan police course with him to Abbeylara.

"Do you consider that by not having the London Met folder you were obliged to carry all the information in your head, assuming it was there in the first place?" Mr O'Higgins asked.

"The material was fresh in my mind," the detective said. If he had felt it was necessary, he would have brought the folder, but he decided not to.

"If it were true that you deliberately decided not to bring it, you demonstrated an appalling arrogance, irresponsibility and recklessness to the task ahead," Mr O'Higgins said. However, he said he believed Det Insp Jackson forgot to bring the file, but was unwilling to admit he made a mistake. Det Insp Jackson repeated that he didn't feel the need to bring it.

"What you did demonstrated a consistency not with the training being fresh in your mind, but was consistent with being ignorant of what the London Met advised."

Mr O'Higgins said the detective "never even gave a second's contemplation" to setting up a remote cell because his notes advising him to do so were back in Dublin, but he was unwilling to admit making any mistakes at the scene.

"No matter how long I stay standing here you will concede nothing." This demonstrated his intransigence, Mr O'Higgins said. "That sort of intransigence is unsuited to negotiations."