HC Deb 01 July 1889 vol 337 cc1146-7
MR. J. F. X. O'BRIEN

I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland whether Patrick Lavan, late of Ballyhaunis, who, it is alleged, was offered, by Police Sergeant Mullen, of Ballyhaunis, a bribe, to induce him to give evidence on behalf of the Times, at the Special Commission, ever gave any secretary information to the police with reference to agrarian crime or political offences?

MR. A. J. BALFOUR

As I have already stated in reply to questions put in this House on the 25th and 28th of March last by the hon. Member who now repeats the inquiry, it was not in the interest of the Times that Sergeant Mullen communicated with Lavan. I cannot undertake to discuss the secret information received by the police from this man or any other source; a proceeding calculated to frustrate the ends of justice. But it is manifest that it could not have related to political offences, none such having been committed.

MR. J. F. X. O'BRIEN

Did not Sergeant Mullen in a letter to Lavan express a hope that he would not be so foolish as to refuse the offer which had been made to him?

MR. A. J. BALFOUR

I am unable to say.