Garda chiefs knew bugging was rampant, claims lawyer

Garda chiefs were aware of rampant illegal bugging of conversations between solicitors and their clients in garda stations nationwide, it was claimed today.

Prominent Donegal lawyer Paudge Dorrian also launched a stinging rebuke of the Garda Commissioner’s office claiming there was no point in making a complaint to the country’s head of police.

He told the Morris Tribunal he went public with allegations about garda stations being bugged in 2001 because he was satisfied it would not be properly investigated by the force.

“The information that I had was that everybody in the higher echelons of the Garda Siochana knew about this but they were going to deny it,” he said.

The solicitor first made the claims to the Donegal Democrat newspaper based on information from his client, disgraced ex-detective sergeant John White.

“He gave me quite clear indications that it was rampant anywhere he served and that there was tape recorders provided and tapes provided in all the stations,” he said.

Mr Dorrian said the information confirmed his long-held suspicions about taping of privileged conversations between solicitors and their clients.

“The Guards would not discuss anything with me in Letterkenny barracks, they always insisted in going outside.”

Pressed by tribunal chairman Justice Frederick Morris as to why he didn’t go through official channels in Garda headquarters with his concerns Mr Dorrian insisted it would have been futile.

“All you get from the Commissioner is: ’The matter is being looked into’,” he told the hearing.

“And you’ll hear nothing again for six months when the matter is still under investigation.

“The frustration that solicitors have experienced going down that road over the years – I could give you hundreds of them.

“So there’s no point in doing that and I certainly didn’t do it, nor would I do it today.”

The solicitor representing Mr White at the investigation into garda wrong-doing further alleged that a recent complaint made to a senior officer in Donegal has not been acted on.

Former Donegal chief superintendent Denis Fitzpatrick, who headed up the division at the time of the alleged bugging, dismissed the claims.

The retired senior officer also maintained he didn’t know a surveillance expert from within the force was drafted into Donegal during the investigation into cattle dealer Richie Barron’s death.

He said Mr White’s claims that privileged conversations between suspects and their lawyers were covertly taped on December 4, 1996 were mischievous.

“I know from my own experience that Guards don’t do these things,” he told the tribunal.

“To my knowledge I know it’s not a practice,” he added.

Electronics specialist Sgt Joe Costello, of the Garda’s technical bureau, has told the hearings he was sent to Donegal at the time of the alleged bugging but didn’t do anything while there.

Mr Fitzpatrick said he was aware that help was sought from the force’s headquarters in Dublin but insists he was unaware that Sgt Costello, who he knew personally, was brought in.

He told tribunal barrister Paul McDermott SC it wasn’t unusual that there was no paperwork from Donegal from the time to formally record the reason for the surveillance expert’s trip.

“I can say without fear of contradiction, there was only one case ever where I saw the transcript of where there was what we call bugging,” he said.

“And that was not between prisoners and solicitors or between Guards and solicitors, it was between Guards.”

“And I told the Guard involved to stop doing it, and I never heard of it after that.”