'The gardai shot dead a sick man'

The gardaí "shot dead a sick man" at Abbeylara and had the media not been there "the full story might never have emerged", RTÉ journalist Mr Niall O'Flynn has told the tribunal.

Mr O'Flynn told Ms Margaret Nerney, counsel for 36 named gardaí, that her clients had shot a mentally ill man and now, four years later, she wanted "to shoot the messenger".

Ms Nerney was cross-examining Mr O'Flynn in relation to his interaction with the Garda press officer, Supt John Farrelly, in relation to the Five Seven Live broadcast in which John Carthy was named and information about his relationship with a former girlfriend was revealed.

In his third day in the witness box, Mr O'Flynn told Ms Nerney that at the time of the broadcast he had not known that Mr Carthy was mentally ill and that his family had told the gardaí that issues surrounding his ex-girlfriend would be "sensitive" and should be avoided.

"Ms Nerney, your clients knew John Carthy suffered from a mental illness, I did not," said Mr O'Flynn.

"Your clients had critical information from the Carthy family. They chose to withhold that information, not only from me but even from their own press officer.

"If the media had not been there, the full story might never have emerged. Now four years later on what you want to do is shoot the messenger."

Mr O'Flynn said he did not think Supt Farrelly had a problem with Mr Carthy being named during the broadcast "per se", but that he did not want the impression given that it was the gardaí who had released his name. For that reason, Mr O'Flynn said on air that the man had been named "locally" as John Carthy, but this hadn't been confirmed by the gardaí.

"I know Supt Farrelly, I like him, I would have no wish to cause him difficulty," he told the tribunal.

Ms Nerney said Mr O'Flynn was going to go ahead with his broadcast "no matter what".

"That flies in the face of my direct evidence," Mr O'Flynn replied.

Some hours after the shooting Mr O'Flynn had tea and sandwiches with Supt Farrelly in a local pub. Mr O'Flynn said he asked if Mr Carthy had been listening to the radio and the officer told him that he had not. This was "absolute validation" that he had done nothing wrong in making his broadcast, Mr O'Flynn said.

Counsel for the Carthy family, Mr Patrick Gageby, asked Mr O'Flynn if he thought himself justified in broadcasting to the nation that Mr Carthy had a failed relationship because of his drinking. Mr O'Flynn said that at the time he did.

The presenter of Five Seven Live on the day of the shooting, Mr Myles Dungan, has told the tribunal he did not speak to Mr O'Flynn before the broadcast.

However, he knew that Mr Carthy was named in interviews conducted by Mr O'Flynn and so he thought it appropriate to also name Mr Carthy so that the listeners were not "taken by surprise" by the interviews.