‘Legal barrier’ to disciplining White

A LEADING criminal law expert has predicted that Garda Commissioner Noel Conroy could face legal difficulties if he attempts to discipline an officer savagely condemned in three reports of the Morris Tribunal.

UCG lecturer Prof Tom O’Malley claimed the tribunal’s negative findings against Detective Sergeant John White contrasted with his recent acquittal in the courts in a related case and the issue was in “an unsatisfactory state”.

Det Sgt White was found not guilty by a jury at Letterkenny Circuit Criminal Court last month on a charge of planting a shotgun at a Travellers’ camp in Burnfoot, Co Donegal, in May 1998, after which seven people were arrested.