Gardaí not encouraged to be aggressive

A FORMER superintendent denied at the Morris Tribunal that gardaí had ever been encouraged to step outside the rules by using aggressive interview techniques to break people down in custody.

John McGinley, who retired after being singled out for criticism in a report from the tribunal, said Det Sgt John White had not been given instructions to engage in tough interviews to unearth details of cattle dealer Richie Barron's death.

"There was no instruction given to anybody to go outside the just treatment of persons in custody regulations, or Criminal Justice Act of '84, in any shape or form," he said.

"These structures are in place to ensure that such abuses don't happen, I am disappointed and saddened that it did happen, as alleged.

"I think that is why the members in charge and those people are there to ensure that those things don't happen.

"However, if two people go into an interview room and do something such as that there is very little that anybody can do about it at the time."

The Morris Tribunal is hearing evidence over the detention of two Donegal sisters in Letterkenny Garda Station on December 4, 1996, in relation to the death of Mr Barron.

Three officers Det Gda John Dooley, Det Sgt John White and Garda Joan Gallagher are accused of intimidating Roisín McConnell and Katrina Brolly while investigating the whereabouts of Ms McConnell's husband, Mark, who was wrongly accused of being involved in Mr Barron's death.