Garda didn’t know calls were being recorded

Ex-assistant commissioner tells Bailey case he only found out on his retirement that it had happened

A former Garda assistant commissioner has told the High Court he did not know phonecalls to and from Bandon Garda Station, including calls concerning the investigation into the murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier, were being recorded in 1997.

Noel Smith, who had also been a chief superintendent in 1997 overseeing the murder investigation in terms of the allocation of resources, said that had he been asked, he would not personally have approved of the recording of people’s private calls without their knowledge.