Morris witness denies making up story

Morris Tribunal witness Adrienne McGlinchey today denied making up a story about seeing a detective beating up and head-butting his wife.

Ms McGlinchey was facing cross-examination for the second successive day at her 10th day of giving evidence to the Dublin-based inquiry.

Today the 39-year-old Co Donegal businesswoman – a key witness at the corruption probe – was she was pressed about her claim that Detective Garda Noel McMahon, a central figure in the affair, attacked his wife Sheenagh.

Brian Murphy, the detective’s barrister, put it to Ms McGlinchey: “You have said in evidence that Noel McMahon lost the plot in life and that you saw him kicking the stuffing out of life in front of the children and that he fisted and head-butted her.

“That never happened.”

Ms McGlinchey insisted: “I brought his children to my home that night and they started telling about daddy beating up mammy.”

And she replied “No way” when Mr Murphy put it to her: “You made it up.”

She added: “I stood in between them and took the children off them when they were screaming and crying.”

The present module of the tribunal – headed by former High Court President Mr Justice Frederick Morris – is investigating claims that Ms McGlinchey and Noel McMahon, together with currently-suspended Garda Superintendent Kevin Lennon, prepared explosives that were later planted and then found in bogus garda finds of claimed terrorist hauls.

The inquiry was set up by the Dáil to look into that and a number of other allegations of improper police activities in Co Donegal.

It is expected to take two years or more to complete inquiries.

Today’s session also heard a new reference to an incident involving a shoebox, an alarm clock – and either cow or sheep droppings.

Ms McGlinchey, who has denied ever being a member of the IRA, or informing on their activities to the garda, told earlier how those materials had formed part of a bid to discredit another alleged informer and deter other garda investigators through a bomb scare.

She told the tribunal today how she had gone on to a mountainside to collect animal manure, and reported to the tribunal: “I said cow dung, but it could have actually been sheep droppings.

“They were put into the box, and I put my clock in.”