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ceiling was torn down. Jonathan McPherson told us of several “gunshot holes in
the windows and ceilings, apart from car tyres being slashed”. Joan McCarthy’s
house was destroyed, furniture was damaged and gunshot marks were all over.
Willis McFarlane was away from his home for 3 weeks. On his return, his
property “was extensively damaged”.
7.102.
While the second wave of searches was being carried out, all
houses were entered and property was disturbed or damaged in most cases. We
were told that these teams comprised persons knowledgeable of construction
and specially trained to identify hiding places for guns or contraband.
7.103.
Lt. Col. Cummings described the operations of the second wave of
searchers.
“The Engineers conducted the search for weapons and
ammunition in Tivoli Gardens by using our knowledge of
construction to analyse inside houses and outside as well in
surrounding areas, wooded areas, areas that we would likely
find weapons and ammunition. And this manifested itself by
looking to see inside houses where there were fresh nails or
fresh paint or grout or any sign of recent construction
inconsistent with the remainder of the property….If an
engineer walks into a room and sees a wooden structure
and all of the nails on that structure are old and rusted and
you suddenly notice that there is one panel with what
appears to be newer nails in it, that would arouse suspicion
and prompt us to want to look behind that particular
structure. By this and other methodologies, we were able to
go systematically from house to house in Tivoli Gardens.”
7.104.
According to Lt. Col. Cummings each house was searched twice.
“Each time ‘a find’ was made, it was reported up the chain
of command and the JCF was brought in to secure the illegal
item found and record it. We also made records of every
round of ammunition and every weapon, where it was found
and when it was found.”