Journalist knew of corruption before Minister, Tribunal told

A journalist knew of serious allegations of corruption and blackmail in an internal garda inquiry before they were put to a Minister for Justice, it emerged today.

Sunday Times crime reporter John Mooney told the Morris Tribunal he was shown a document outlining claims of garda corruption in Donegal up to two weeks before it was sent to TDs Jim Higgins and Brendan Howlin on June 25, 2000.

Within days the politicians, then justice spokesmen for Fine Gael and Labour, brought the allegations to the attention of Justice Minister John O’Donoghue.

The anonymous allegations, which remain totally unsubstantiated, have become the foundation of the Morris Tribunal.

“Can you recall when was it you were shown the document,” asked Anthony Barr, SC for the tribunal.

“It was before Jim Higgins and Brendan Howlin approached the government with it or when they stated they saw it on June 25th,” he said.

“I have made a number of my own inquiries in the past couple of days and I wrote an article which appeared on the 25th concerning abuses perpetrated against the McBrearty family and I’m almost sure it was in the run up to that.”

The allegations claim then Asst Comm Kevin Carty – who headed the internal probe into corruption in the Donegal division – and his former colleague Asst Comm Tony Hickey were corrupt and used a now disgraced former Detective Sergeant John White – sacked last year for planting evidence on suspects – to do their dirty work.

Mr Mooney said he initially chose not to write a story about the document as he was concerned about its accuracy.

“The fall-out by the Sunday Times in particular in an article about two senior police officers and indeed John White stating that they were engaged in these activities would have been calamitive if it was wrong,” he said.

“I had chosen to research it and check it out to see if there was any truth to it, not just to take anyone’s assertions on face value.

“What really struck me was the allegations contained in the document,” he said.

Mr Mooney said at first he simply took copies of what it contained with inquiries continuing for a period of time afterwards,

“Through my own confidential sources I had been told that John White had never really worked with Tony Hickey so that allegation couldn’t have been true,” he continued.

“In time I came to believe it wasn’t true, and it was certainly alleged to me that possibly it had been created by a garda maybe under investigation.”

The tribunal is currently trying to establish the source of allegations implicating An Garda Siochana’s top brass in a dirty policing ring.

Mr Mooney said he was ethically bound not to revel his sources, nor would he tell the tribunal where or when he met contacts for any stories which he wrote on alleged garda corruption in the county.

The journalist added that he had been instructed by the NUJ not to engage in any discussions that could reveal any source of confidential information through elimination.

But he later admitted former garda PJ Togher was not his source, that he did not know who the author of the document was, and confirmed that he had no evidence that John White was behind the document.

The tribunal has heard that Frank McBrearty Snr faxed the document to his lawyer and Mr Higgins, but the original source has never been publicly identified.