Gardaí lied about assaulting Carthy in 1998

IN another bleak day for the gardaí, Mr Justice Barr challenged the veracity of evidence given by two officers to the tribunal.

He concluded Garda Turlough Bruen and Garda Frank McHugh had physically abused John Carthy while interrogating him about an offence in 1998.

That incident was one of the principle reasons for Mr Carthy’s “deep animosity towards, and distrust of, the police”, the judge said, and was a factor in the subsequent events which led to his death two years later.

In September 1998, the Abbeylara football team had reached the Longford county final and a local publican obtained a large wooden effigy of a goat erected on the village green, only to be destroyed by fire on the night of September 22.

The following day, the publican, “who was not well disposed to John Carthy,” told Garda David Martin of Smear Garda Station that two people had seen Mr Carthy destroy the mascot. As the offence was not carried out in the Smear area, the officer passed the information to Garda Turlough Bruen of Granard station.

“Without further detail or any investigation by him, Garda Bruen was satisfied that John Carthy was in fact the guilty party and he decided to arrest him and interrogate him accordingly,” Mr Justice Barr said.

Garda Bruen obtained the assistance of a fellow officer, Garda Frank McHugh, for the two interrogations which followed, in which Mr Carthy repeatedly proclaimed his innocence.

It later emerged that the publican’s information “was untrue”, and that one of the alleged witnesses had not seen Mr McCarthy burn the mascot.

He was released from custody, but the following morning, attended his GP and alleged he had been physically assaulted while in detention. The doctor found minor injuries consistent with some trauma or application of force.

Garda Bruen and Garda McHugh told the tribunal that Mr Carthy had not been assaulted while in custody. But in his report, Mr Justice Barr said: “I do not accept the evidence of Gardaí Bruen and McHugh that neither of them physically abused the subject while under interrogation after an unjustified arrest and charging with a substantial crime”.

The superintendent who was appointed area officer at Granard in 1999 did not investigate the issue, and Garda Bruen was subsequently promoted to sergeant.

The subsequent report into events at Abbeylara by Chief Superintendent Adrian Culligan contained no criticism of either Garda Bruen or McHugh and was “patently sparse on detail”, the judge said.

“It is evidence that the history of the subject’s arrest and interrogation … was an episode which was seriously embarrassing for the gardaí,” Mr Justice Barr said.

He believed it was for this reason that no information about the incident was passed onto the negotiator during the siege at Abbeylara which culminated in Mr Carthy’s death.

“If the negotiator had been properly advised as to the cause and extent of John Carthy’s animosity towards, and distrust of, the police, it might well have had an important bearing on his approach to the deceased,” the judge said.