Man presented gardaí with wheel rim from scene of disputed road death

THE man responsible for clearing litter from the streets of Raphoe, County Donegal, yesterday recalled how he found a broken wheel-trim near the scene of a disputed road death at the centre of a garda corruption probe.

The discovery was made by Martin Laird, soon after the mystery roadside death of local cattle dealer and farmer Richie Barron nearly seven years ago. Mr Laird told the Morris Tribunal (currently sitting in Donegal Town) he had collected the car part and handed it over to the gardaí, together with a bag of clothing he had also found, “as a respectable citizen, trying to help in a case where a man had been killed”.

He said that, on the morning after the Barron death, he had seen Mark McConnell, one of two men regarded by gardaí as suspects for a possible murder, leaving a bar in Raphoe. The sighting, he said, happened at a time when Mr O’Connell subsequently claimed he was still at his home. He stressed, that he had attached no importance to seeing Mr McConnell, whom he knew well as a neighbour, adding: “I never thought it could be in any way significant.”