Court asks surveillance garda to answer question on how many observed suspects
A court has ruled against surveillance gardaí who claimed that revealing the number of officers who observe suspects from cars would allow other suspects to know which cars “to look for”.
The ruling was made in the Special Criminal Court trial of eight men charged with IRA membership on Good Friday two years ago in which six officers of the National Surveillance Unit (NSU) are giving evidence.
Members of the public have been excluded from court during the officers' testimony.
The officers must not be identified and evidence relating to trade craft and methodology of the NSU must not be published by order of the court.
An issue arose during the cross examination of Garda S of the NSU today which forced the three judges of the non-jury court to rise momentarily.
Under cross examination, Garda S claimed privilege when asked if there were other officers with him in a car while he made observations of an accused.
Micheál P O'Higgins SC, for Mr Jackson, asked for the basis on which he was claiming privilege and how such a revelation could compromise State security.
In response, Garda S said suspects under observation would know “to look for cars” with one person, two persons, three persons inside or “whatever it was” and would become aware of the NSU's trade craft and methodology.
If it was revealed how many people were in Garda S's car, counsel for the Director of Public Prosecutions Tara Burns SC said, it would identify the type of cars involved in surveillance operations and how many officers travel around in them.
Mr O'Higgins said the State was “going too far with this” and their claims of privilege were putting “a block on questioning”.
After rising momentarily, Mr Justice Paul Butler, presiding, said the court was generally happy to uphold the claim of privilege.
“Every little piece of information that comes out about surveillance can be added together and very soon you'll have a picture about how it's done,” he said.
However, the judge said, Mr O'Higgins had raised a question that he is potentially hampered by not knowing if there was another person or persons in the car with Garda S and whether or not there were others in a position to take notes of their observations.
“On that basis and in this instance,” Mr Justice Butler said, the court allowed the question of whether or not there was another person or persons in the car with Garda S.
Finally, Mr O'Higgins asked Garda S if there were other people in the car with him, however his answer cannot be published, by order of the court.
The evidence of the NSU members continues before Mr Justice Butler, Judge Alison Lindsay and Judge William Hamill in the non-jury court on Tuesday.
It is the second consecutive trial that the court has excluded the public from entering for evidence given by NSU members.
The court made a similar order during the 55-day-trial of three men charged with the murder of dissident republican Peter Butterly which collapsed last week.
All eight men have pleaded not guilty to membership of an illegal organisation styling itself as the Irish Republican Army, otherwise Oglaigh na hÉireann, otherwise the IRA on March 29, 2013.
The eight are: Kevin Braney (aged 40), of Glenshane Crescent, Tallaght , Des Christie (aged 50), of Liam Mellows Road, Finglas, Eamon McNamee (aged 34), of Larkfield Square, Lucan, Hubert Duffy (aged 47), of George’s Place in Dublin 1, William Jackson (aged 55), of Dooncourt, Poppintree, Declan Phelan (aged 33), of Lanndale Lawns, Tallaght, John Brock (aged 42), of Glenview Park, Tallaght, and Darren Murphy (aged 44), of Rory O’Connor House in Dublin 1.
Ms Burns has said that members of the NSU observed the eight at various locations in Finglas and Clondalkin on the morning of March 29, 2013.
She said that around midday members of the Emergency Response Unit entered the yard of a used car sales lot in Clondalkin and arrested the eight men.
Ms Burns has told the court that gardaí who searched the used car lot found cable ties, balaclavas, a Glock pistol, a baseball bat and pepper spray among other items.
In follow up searches of two vans, an office and kitchen, gardaí found cables ties, gloves, balaclavas, a baseball bat, a lump hammer, a pepper spray and a Glock pistol.
Ms Burns said that after their arrest the eight men were interviewed at various garda stations.
She said some of them made no reply when questioned, some of them denied membership of the IRA and some of them gave answers to garda questions which were untrue.
She said the court would be invited to draw inferences from the responses of the eight men to garda questions.
Ms Burns said that the prosecution case against the men would rely on the sightings of the accused by the National Surveillance Unit, items found after their arrest, their responses to garda questioning and the opinion evidence of Detective Chief Superintendent Peter Kirwan.
