Criminal informer plan rejected by Government

SENIOR gardaí backed a proposal to run a reward for information programme through national newspapers but the Chief State Solicitor shot it down.

One chief superintendent believed the idea could help close the file on unsolved cases such as that of 10-year-old Bernadette Connolly who was murdered at Collooney, Co Sligo, in 1970.

Writing in a memo, Chief Supt Mulgrew of the Crime Branch in Garda Headquarters said the proposal “could prove successful in this type of case as it is believed that useful evidential information in possession of certain persons residing in the areas has not been disclosed to the gardai”.