A Donegal publican made a plea for help to one of the country’s garda chiefs after his family was allegedly harassed and intimidated by officers in the county, it emerged today.

A garda sergeant stationed in Donegal in the late 1990s today told a tribunal she regrets not speaking-out about an alleged campaign of harassment levied at a local publican by senior officers.

Former Taoiseach John Bruton told his Fine Gael colleague Jim Higgins not to champion the cause of the McBrearty family, it was claimed today.

THE McBreartys of Donegal last night spoke of their living nightmare when family members were wrongfully accused of murder and subjected to garda harassment and intimidation.