Sergeant was called by Carthy's friend

Today the Barr Tribunal, set up to investigate the circumstances of John Carthy's death, heard from Sergeant Daniel Monaghan who was in charge of Carthy's local station at the time of his death.

John Carthy was shot dead in April 2000 by the Garda Emergency Response Unit after a twenty-four hour siege at his home in Abbeylara, Co Longford.

On the day of the siege, the tribunal heard, a friend of John Carthy who was living in Galway called Sergeant Monaghan.

Kevin Ireland told him John had rang and mentioned a solicitor in Dublin he wanted to see if he was going to give himself up.

Sergeant Monaghan said they considered the phone call serious as it was the first contact John had made with someone since the siege began.

However, despite efforts by several gardai at the station they could not find the solicitor's number in the phone book.