Bruton ‘warned TD off garda corruption fight’
The MEP took up the Donegal family’s fight in June 2000 after receiving allegations by fax that dirty policing in An Garda Síochána went right to the top.
At the Morris Tribunal, retired Garda Patrick Togher said he was told a member of the Garda Complaints Board asked the then Fine Gael leader to warn off his Dáil colleague.
Mr Togher said he heard Mr Higgins was warned off after the McBreartys met the TD for the second time in the Dáil bar.
Mr Bruton was leader of the opposition at the time.
“Frank jnr told me that Mr Higgins had told him that John Bruton had called Mr Higgins in and told him to lay off with the McBreartys,” Mr Togher said.
“Because a member of the Garda Complaints Board — I’m not sure if it’s Drogheda or Dundalk — had approached Mr Bruton and had told him that Mr Higgins was causing problems and would he put a bit of pressure on him to lay off.”
No indication was given of the identity of the officer from the Garda Complaints Board who approached Mr Bruton.
Mr Togher denied being the original source of the anonymous tip-off. “The fact is I never sent or drew up a fax or had anything to do with the sending of it, or had absolutely nothing to do with Mr Higgins receiving it,” Mr Togher said.
It emerged Mr Togher met Mr Higgins in a hotel a few weeks ago over the faxed allegations. The MEP agreed then that Mr Togher was not the source and offered to write to the tribunal to clarify, but Mr Togher told him not to.
The allegations claim the internal garda probe into corruption in Donegal, headed by Assistant Commissioner Kevin Carty, was compromised. It said disgraced former detective sergeant John White did dirty work for both Mr Carty and retired assistant commissioner Tony Hickey by cooking up evidence to close difficult investigations.
No evidence has been found to back this up.
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