Detective denies making anonymous phone call

A FORMER detective sergeant yesterday denied making an anonymous phone call to a suspect and interfering with evidence when an explosive device was found at a telephone mast in Donegal.

Det Sgt John White described to the Morris Tribunal into garda corruption how he found the device at a telecoms mast in Ardara on November 19, 1996.

He was giving evidence on the first day of the Ardara module of the tribunal, which is examining claims the device was constructed at a Donegal garda station and planted in order to arrest a number of people.

Three men were detained following the discovery of the device, which came two weeks after a container at the site was burned causing Ir£50,000 of damage.

In previous protests, locals opposed to a transmitter being installed at the mast had strewn nails on the road and glued locks, the tribunal heard.

Det Sgt White said he had got a message there was a problem at the mast and when he and Garda George McNeill went to the site he found a device with a fuse sticking out of the end.

“I went over to the mast, looked around it and went within about five or six feet of it. I was a bit nervous but I walked around the side and the back of it,” he said.

It was about three minutes before he called over his colleague, who was talking to a telecoms man in a hut at the site, he said.

Garda McNeill told the tribunal he believed they had gone to the mast for further investigation of the arson attack and he had spent five or six minutes talking to the technician.

The device turned out to be constructed out of firecrackers and was not a genuine explosive, the tribunal heard.

Det Sgt White denied testing it outside the garda station, by trying to set alight a spoonful of powder.

“I’ve no recollection of touching the device in anyway. I’m sure as I personally can be in my memory, and I would tell you if I did.”

He also denied calling suspect Anthony Diver (who has since died) on the night before the discovery, demanding to know what was going on at the site.

“It certainly isn’t the truth I didn’t make any telephone calls,” he told the tribunal.

Det Sgt White said he went to Mr Diver’s house the day after he was arrested and released and that Mr Diver had accused him of planting the device, but did not mention the anonymous phone call.

“He was angry and agitated and said ‘how do we know you didn’t plant the device yourself to get us arrested?’ and I told him I most certainly didn’t.”

He also described the accusation he illegally took a jar of glue from the shed of another suspected protester Bernard Shovlin as a ridiculous, disgusting, rotten allegation.

Det Sgt White agreed with the suggestion the protests at the mast could be seen as a pretty serious threat to forces of law and order in the district.

But he denied there was a view that it was shameful gardaí could not keep control.

Asked if he thought the burning of the container at the mast was an escalation of the situation, he said it was.

“There must have been 50,000 Irish pounds worth of equipment in the container that was burned.

“Of course it was very, very serious and we set about investigating it.”