Gardaí actions after Barron death ‘suspect’

Cormac O’Keeffe

It said four people including a garda involved in framing members of the McBrearty family for murdering Mr Barron could have been considered as suspects in the hit-and-run.

In a 350-page assessment on the initial reaction of gardaí to the discovery of Mr Barron's body outside Raphoe on October 14, 1996, Justice Frederick Morris said the response was "deeply disturbing".

He said that once the emergency call came into the Letterkenny garda communication centre:

The garda on duty in Raphoe, Garda Padraig Mulligan, could not be contacted on his walkie-talkie and was drinking in a pub with an off-duty colleague, Garda John O'Dowd.

Two other gardaí Garda James Dwyer and Garda John Birney who were in a Lifford patrol car did not respond because they were on a meal break.

The four gardaí were "hopelessly negligent" in failing to preserve the scene of the accident when they arrived, despite clear rules that they should have.

They failed to preserve the body and clothing of Richard Barron at the hospital in Letterkenny.

They failed to carry out any inquiries locally immediately after the accident.

Gardaí failed to have a forensic pathologist carry out a post mortem on the body.

The report said the failure of Supt John Fitzgerald and Chief Supt Denis Fitzpatrick to discipline these gardaí was "shockingly inadequate".

He found that two gardaí John O'Dowd and Philip Collins "coerced" a

susceptible local, Noel McBride, into giving fraudulent statements implicating Frank McBrearty Jnr and his cousin Mark McConnell.

Sergeant Martin Moylan "allowed himself to be carried along" with this and a fourth garda, Martin Leonard, failed to protect the rights of Mr McBride.

Mr Justice Morris criticised the "gross negligence" of senior officers for failing to assess these fraudulent statements.

The report said there were four other people including Garda O'Dowd who could have been treated as suspects in Mr Barron's death.

However, he said he could not conclude Garda O'Dowd was involved in the death and said the garda rejected the suggestion.

But he added: "It is difficult to understand why, if Garda O'Dowd had nothing to hide, he told so many lies about his behaviour that evening."

The report said both Garda O'Dowd and Garda Mulligan continued to hide their movements for years after the death.