Garda ‘adopted sinister approach to estranged wife’

NOEL McMAHON adopted a sinister approach to his estranged wife after she made a statement listing allegations against the detective, the Morris Tribunal was told yesterday.

Cormac Corrigan, counsel for Sheenagh McMahon, said Garda McMahon alleged to have helped prepare explosives that later turned up in bogus garda terrorist arms finds had been trying to hide the facts about what went on at his former family home in Buncrana, Co Donegal.

Mr Corrigan, delivering his final submission to the long-running inquiry, said: "What Mrs McMahon had in her statement was the truth and it was the truth that Noel McMahon was trying to suppress. It goes back to the sinister approach by and on behalf of Detective Garda McMahon towards my client. It was important for him to bring pressure to bear on Mrs McMahon."

Both Noel McMahon and a second detective, Superintendent Kevin Lennon, have denied that, together with alleged IRA informer Adrienne McGlinchey, they mixed explosives for use in fake finds.

Letterkenny woman Ms McGlinchey has maintained that she was never either a garda informer or in the IRA.

Final submissions from lawyers in the current module of the tribunal began last week and are expected to be completed later this month.