Road accident ‘likely cause of Barron injuries’

TWO British Home Office experts yesterday concluded that injuries sustained by cattle dealer Ritchie Barron in his mystery Co Donegal roadside death nearly seven years ago were most likely the result of a road accident.

Dr Helen Whitwell a consultant forensic pathologist at the Home office since 1988 said "it was very difficult, if not impossible" to think of any combination of weapons that might have caused the injuries she saw in an examination of body parts from Mr Barron some five years after he died in October, 1966.

And together with colleague Dr Philip Lumb, she declared in response to the possibility that the injuries were caused by some form of assault "I think it is highly unlikely".

The two medical witnesses both from Sheffield University, which provides forensic pathology services to British police forces presented evidence at the start of the fourth week of the current phase of the Morris tribunal into allegations of garda corruption.

Dr Whitwell said Mr Barron's high blood-alcohol level suggested he could have been "stumbling around" when he was killed. And Dr Lumb reported that the body had sustained injuries that could have been caused in a road accident adding that a severe degree of force had been necessary to lead to the scale of significant injuries.

He said the dead man's skull had shown no indication of a pattern that might have been created by a blow from a hammer or other blunt instrument but there were signs of contact with a broad, flat surface at high speed, possibly caused by being hit by a part of a vehicle.

And later, when asked by tribunal counsel Peter Charleton about the possibility of an assault causing the injury, Dr Whitwell replied: "While it is not possible to totally exclude that, I think it is highly unlikely.

"This sort of injury is typical from the blunt impact of a vehicle at high speed in a road traffic accident."

She agreed an assault was "a remote academic possibility," adding "I really cannot envisage that as a scenario, given my interpretation of the injuries".

The tribunal is examining how the Barron death was investigated, including claims that garda officers were late arriving at the scene of the incident, and failed properly to preserve the scene after the discovery of the body.

After initially working on the hit-and-run accident theory in relation to Mr Barron's death, gardaí later launched a murder inquiry a development that prompted the unfolding of events that helped lead to the establishment of the tribunal. There were allegations that cousins Frank McBrearty Jnr and Mark McConnell picked out as prime suspects by detectives in their murder probe and their extended family, came in for "gross harassment" from the gardai.