Barrister denies misleading politician

A barrister today insisted he never misled the Labour Party’s Brendan Howlin over allegations of top-level Garda corruption that led to the Morris Tribunal.

Senior counsel Martin Giblin contacted the high-ranking opposition politician in June 2000 after his client Frank McBrearty Snr sent him a fax outlining the claims.

The Donegal publican said he received the anonymous document in the post alleging that Detective Sergeant John White was in a position to undermine Assistant Commissioners Kevin Carty and Tony Hickey.

Mr Carty was carrying out an internal probe into the alleged activities of rogue gardai in Donegal at the time. Pat Marrinan, barrister for the top officers, pressed Mr Giblin at the Morris Tribunal on why he didn’t tell Mr Howlin the allegations were passed to him from his client, Mr McBrearty Snr.

“I don’t know why I didn’t do it. I didn’t send him any other documents either,” Mr Giblin said.

Mr Marrinan suggested the omission would have added weight to the claims.

“One might interpret that as perhaps an indication that you were trying to indicate to Mr Howlin that this was coming in from some independent source and wasn’t coming directly from your client,” he said.

But Mr Giblin insisted he never set out to conceal anything from the politician.

“I didn’t feel then and I don’t feel now that I misled Mr Howlin,” he said.