Station diary ‘was altered’, tribunal told

A GARDA station diary was altered to show a different clocking off time for a member of the force on the same night an extortion phone call was made from that garda’s home.

Garda Ray Jackman, a handwriting expert with 12 year’s experience, told the Morris Tribunal yesterday that he carried out an examination of the station diary in Raphoe, Co Donegal for November 9, 1996.

The tribunal previously heard that on the same night, a series of extortion phone calls were made to Charlotte and Michael Peoples accusing them of the murder of cattle dealer Richie Barron.

One of the calls was made from the home of Raphoe garda John O’Dowd at 10.06pm.

Garda Jackman found that the clocking off time for Garda O’Dowd in the station diary had been altered from 10pm to 10.30pm in two separate entries.

He told the tribunal that a hook had been placed on top of the second zero to make it look like a three. This hook had been written in a different direction to the first zero.

Garda Jackman said: “I wouldn’t think it’s done very skilfully.”

He said that in some circumstances, a person would draw a line through a figure or write their initials beside a correction to acknowledge their mistake but he said it was highly unlikely that a person would make two mistakes and two alterations.

The tribunal heard that it was common practice for a garda to sign another colleague off duty.

Garda Jackman said he assumed the hand-written entry had been made by another member of the station, Garda Phil Collins.

When he checked the overtime form filled in by Garda O’Dowd for the same day, the clocking off time was 10.30pm and there was no evidence of any alteration.

However, the tribunal heard that these forms, known as A85s, could be filled in at a later date.

Brian Murphy, for Garda John O’Dowd, said he was not disputing the fact that the times had been altered in the station diary.

“My only instruction in relation to it from Mr O’Dowd is that he didn’t do it. He didn’t sign himself off either. It was Garda Collins as far as he was concerned.”

Garda O’Dowd previously denied making any extortion phone calls to the Peoples’ house.

The investigation into the extortion phone calls made to the Peoples family is part of the Morris Tribunal’s wider inquiry into the activities of certain gardaí in the Donegal division.