Tribunal hears scapegoat claim

A SUSPENDED garda at the centre of the Morris Tribunal’s investigations said yesterday he believed garda chiefs wanted to scapegoat him for garda corruption in Co Donegal in the 1990s.

Detective Sergeant John White also revealed that he began seeing a psychiatrist for depression after an internal garda inquiry led by Assistant Commissioner Kevin Carty began in 1999.

The experienced detective recalled an interview with “stony-faced and very, very adversarial” officers from the Carty team in Letterkenny Garda Station in March 2000.

He said: “I felt that the Carty agenda was to find a scapegoat or two for what was going on in Donegal and I felt threatened that I was that scapegoat.

“I feared that I was being set up but I knew they had no evidence against me.

“The situation got so bad for me that I contacted a psychiatrist and went to see him and I’ve never seen a man like that in my life before.”

The detective was later arrested by the Carty team on suspicion of being involved in false statements made by Sligo petty criminal Bernard Conlon.

However, he was acquitted in Letterkenny Circuit Court earlier this year on charges of perverting the course of justice and making false statements.

The 50-year-old, who broke down in the witness box on Wednesday, earlier blamed his depression for memory lapses during cross-examination by the tribunal’s lawyers.

He is into his third day of evidence in the ‘Silver Bullet’ module and denies all corruption allegations by Mr Conlon.

Pressed for specific details on certain incidents by tribunal counsel Paul McDermott, SC, Det Sgt White said: “I’m suffering from depression and I regularly attend a psychiatrist and I’m just not able to have a memory for all these things. I’m telling the truth.”