Senior garda rejects bribe and adultery claims
(Suspended Detective Superintendent) Kevin Lennon intervened as (suspended Detective Garda) Noel McMahon appeared in the witness box for a third successive week.
He talked of allegations of an extra-marital affair on the part of the superintendent, having referred to claims of a £6,000 bribe earlier in his evidence.
In both cases, McMahon backed Lennon's version of events when both officers were based in Co Donegal during the 1990s.
But Lennon, representing himself at the hearing after failing to secure costs for a legal team in the High Court, interrupted to declare he was "hurt grievously" by suggestions he had accepted bribes.
He said the Carty report, an internal garda inquiry into the affair, had already investigated his bank accounts, and added: "The allegations are false.
"The people whom I'm alleged to have got these monies from, I know have been interviewed and they are good people, and have been friends of mine for years.
"All I hold is a household, a family and a car.
"These matters, so many matters of money thrown around in the public domain, that never occurred, and they hurt grievously.
"There is nothing so low as to accuse a policeman of accepting some type of reward for the non performance or the interference of duty."
He also said claims he had an affair reflected on his family and were "totally untrue".
Lennon was told by tribunal chairman Mr Justice Frederick Morris that his comments had been noted.
McMahon and Lennon are accused of having prepared explosives, together with alleged IRA informer Adrienne McGlinchey, that were later used to stage bogus garda arms finds in Co Donegal during the 1990s.
The two detectives have denied the accusations, and Ms McGlinchey has insisted she was never an informer or a member of the IRA.
McMahon earlier told of how he had written a letter of support for Lennon, but insisted he had received no "encouragement" from Lennon to do so.
He typed out the letter, to be sent to Detective Sergeant James Leheny, who, McMahon claimed, had been making allegations against Lennon.
The letter was never sent, but McMahon faced intensive cross-examination on the issue from tribunal lawyer Paul McDermott.
"Typing the letter was a decision I took myself. It was a way of ensuring [then] Inspector Lennon. I wanted to commit it in writing," said McMahon.
"There was no encouragement to do it. I did it of my own free will at home. I was clearly stating that, despite what had been alleged by Det Sgt Leheny, I had nothing that would damage his career. I had no knowledge of the allegations.
"I was prepared to put it in writing as I was very annoyed."
McMahon, a long-standing friend of Lennon they once shared digs rejected as "nonsense" the suggestion he would criticise Lennon were Det Sgt Leheny to take McMahon out and get him drunk.
He told the tribunal chairman he had been "flabbergasted" at the suggestion by Det Sgt Leheny that McMahon could topple Lennon's career "in 20 minutes".
"I had no knowledge what he was talking about. I did not know anything.
"[then] Inspector Lennon did not know anything, either and wanted to know if I knew anything."
The judge put it to him: "I would have thought without some concrete object, it is an over-reaction to write a letter of this sort. You never thought what it was, this bit of dynamite that was going to blow Lennon out of the water?"
McMahon replied: "I was annoyed about it, but I did not think it was an over-reaction. I tried to find out but I did not."
He suggested Det Sgt Leheny had been attempting to create a rift by claiming Lennon was having an extra-marital affair and making other allegations about him.
