A solicitor for the family of the late John Carthy has said today's Garda report on his shooting failed to clarify issues surrounding a conflict of evidence between the State Pathologist, Dr John Harbison, and other witnesses at the inquest in Longford a fortnight ago. Mr Peter Mullen said that the Carthy family would be making a submission to the Dáil Committee on Justice and Equality before the end of November and were now hopeful that the committee would call witnesses to examine outstanding issues in January of next year.
The report, which was compiled by Chief Superintendent Adrian Culligan from Cork, states that the 27-year-old Longford man called to see his own solicitor on two occasions in the 48 hours prior the siege. It also denies earlier reports that members of the emergency response unit involved in the siege had failed weapon tests in a training course immediately prior to the shooting. Mr Carthy was shot dead on April 20, after emerging from his house at the end of a siege.
Chief Superintendent Adrian Culligan and a team of detectives completed an investigation into the Abbeylara shooting over nine weeks in May and June of this year. Their findings, published by the Dáil committee on Justice, Equality, Defence and Women's Affairs this morning, confirm details of the final movements that led to the shooting of John Carthy. Much of the report's detail emerged during the staging of an inquest into Carthy's death two weeks ago but the report confirms for the first time that he made two different attempts to speak to his own family solicitor in the two days prior to the siege.
In a report also published today, a team of FBI investigators who examined the policing practices at Abbeylara criticised the ERU officers for allowing John Carthy to breach an inner cordon placed around his house at the end of the siege.
