Posted on 10/23/2006 11:11:13 AM PDT by Irish_Thatcherite
Detectives found not guilty of perjury 23/10/2006 - 13:39:04
Two detective gardaí accused of forging notes of interview and of committing perjury during the trial of a man suspected of involvement in the Omagh bombing have been found not guilty by direction of the trial judge.
Judge Desmond Hogan at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court directed the jury to acquit the detectives following his ruling that the allegedly forged interview notes and technical analysis of them were inadmissible.
Detective Gardaí John Fahy (aged 53), of Glaslough, Co Monaghan and Liam Donnelly (aged 50), of Cavan Town gave evidence in the 2001 trial of Colm Murphy and had pleaded not guilty to charges of perjury, forgery and using a forged document.
The detectives have been found not guilty of two counts of perjury in that they knowingly and falsely swore under oath that the purported notes of their interview with Colm Murphy on February 22, 1999 had not been rewritten and were an accurate account, on dates between October 18 and November 15, 2001 at the Special Criminal Court in Dublin.
They have also been acquitted of two counts of forging notes of interview with Mr Murphy on a date between February 21 and 22, 1999 and using a forged document at the 2001 trial with the intention to deceive.
Judge Hogan’s ruling came on day six of the trial following three days of legal argument in the jury’s absence.
He found that the prosecution were unable to establish a chain of custody in relation to the original notes of interview or of the later "electrostatic document analysis".
Mr Paul O’Higgins SC, prosecuting, told the jury in opening the case on day two of the trial that Mr Murphy was arrested in February 1999 in connection with the Omagh bombing and was systematically interviewed by teams of gardaí.
Mr O’Higgins said Mr Murphy was interviewed by the two accused men between 3.45 p.m. and 5.45 p.m. Det Gda Donnelly made notes and Det Gda Fahy primarily asked questions.
Mr O’Higgins said Mr Murphy was meant to have given answers which were compromising to him and that evidence of where his mobile phone was at any given time was of significance to the charge of conspiracy to cause an explosion.
The prosecution’s case was to have been that "electrostatic document analysis" would show that the third page of interview was not the only third page of notes made.
Mr O’Higgins told Judge Hogan that in light of the court’s ruling no further evidence could go before the jury which could have led to a conviction and asked that a direction be given to the jury to return not guilty verdicts on all charges.
The IRA is made up of psychopaths who attempt to do what so many terrorists attempt to do....achieve with bombs what they can't achieve with ballots.
The Provos try and have it both ways!
Terrorism ping!
At first I read that and thought it said Colm Meaney...
Hmmm... I think I know what you mean!
Thanks for the ping!
You're welcome!
It just shows how screwed up things are getting - but you can be sure SFIRA are trying to discredit the Gardai in the same way they tried to discredit the RUC.
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