Garda: Politicians deceived govt over criminality claims
One of the highest ranking officers in the Garda today launched an extraordinary attack on two of the country’s most senior opposition politicians over claims he was involved in criminality.
Assistant Commissioner Kevin Carty accused Fine Gael’s Jim Higgins and the Labour Party’s Brendan Howlin of having deceived the government about a lingering controversy he believes devastated his career.
The top police officer - currently seconded from the force to the Vienna-based Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe – claimed he was jettisoned on foot of the pair’s political ambition.
In a scathing onslaught, the assistant commissioner likened the involvement of both politicians in sparking the Morris Tribunal seven years ago to the bizarre events of a John Le Carré spy novel.
“The truth was they weren’t worried about my reputation at that particular point in time. There was political capital to be made out of it,” Assistant Commissioner Carty told the Morris Tribunal.
The top politicians passed anonymous allegations – received through Donegal publican Frank McBrearty Sr – to the then minister for justice, John O’Donoghue.
Retired Assistant Commissioner Tony Hickey, who headed up the Veronica Guerin murder probe, told the hearing the claims against his colleague were of the gravest nature.
“The allegations in it couldn’t be any more serious short of murder or rape or robbery or something.
"They were pretty horrific and they were very stark,” he said.
Mr Carty insisted the political intervention that then put him at the centre of a separate internal Garda inquiry in 2000 was done without any regard for his rights.
“I think myself and my colleagues were jettisoned, if you like, to satisfy that political agenda without any thought being given to was this information genuine, were they [Mr Higgins and Mr Howlin] actually being duped, which they actually were to my estimation,” he said.
“At the end of the day they were used as pawns, basically, as a conduit, to put this in the public domain and they allowed themselves [to be led] up the garden path.”
Richard Humphreys BL, barrister for Mr Howlin, insisted his client did respect the assistant commissioner’s rights and never brought the allegations up in the Dáil, under privilege.
Mr Carty dismissed the protest, accusing Mr Howlin of ignoring his moral obligations, taking the allegations at face value without adequately checking out their authenticity. “I have never suggested, Mr Chairman, that Mr Howlin should investigate it,” he said.
“What I am suggesting is Mr Howlin should have asked basic questions, which I think would occur to anybody exercising common sense.
“Mr Howlin assumes that there was no malicious intent in relation to these allegations, which was tantamount to saying that there was substance in the allegations.
“He had made no inquiry – even the minimum amount of inquiry – as to the allegations but he was prepared to, more or less, accept that there was substance in them, ignoring myself and my colleagues’ rights.”
He added: “It’s my opinion that Mr Howlin was dismissive of my rights by the way he brought this information forward without even making any inquiry as to establish any element of it.”
Mr Carty said he and his team were “used as an acceptable collateral damage” by people who were “blinded by the light, if you like, of political justification”.
The senior garda officer has already told the tribunal his reputation as a senior policing advisor for the world’s largest security agency is regularly called into question by foreign governments because of the unproven allegations.
