Garda seeks High Court order over shotgun probe

A suspended Garda sergeant is seeking a High Court order today to prevent the Morris Tribunal from investigating allegations that he planted a shotgun.

The Morris tribunal was due to open its “Burnfoot module” to examine allegations that Sgt John White planted the gun in a travellers’ camp in Burnfoot, Donegal, in May 1998.

However, Sgt White’s legal team obtained a temporary High Court injunction at the weekend to prevent the module from opening.

Sgt White will return to the High Court today to seek an order to have the Burnfoot module adjourned until the conclusion of the criminal proceedings against him.

He was charged in 2001 with unlawful possession of a shotgun but last year he was granted a judicial review of the prosecution on the basis of the alleged non-disclosure and non-preservation of certain evidence. The High Court has yet to return judgment.

The DPP applied to the Morris Tribunal this month to have the module heard in private to avoid jeopardising the prosecution but Sgt White said he wanted to have it adjourned, or heard in public if it proceeded.

In a statement on the tribunal’s website, Judge Morris said there was a realistic danger that it might be some years before Sgt White’s case came to a hearing and added that he had an obligation to report on the Burnfoot module at the earliest possible date.

“Accordingly, I am not satisfied that it is in the interests of justice or necessary to protect the right of Det Sgt White to a fair trial to grant an adjournment of this module until the conclusion of those criminal proceedings. The hearing of this module will proceed in private.”

However, the ability of the Morris Tribunal to proceed is dependent on the High Court’s ruling on Sgt White’s application today.