Witness claims he was told to report ‘death threat’ by garda

A MAN who falsely claimed he had been threatened with death by a silver bullet was put up to it by a garda sergeant, the Morris Tribunal into garda corruption in Donegal heard yesterday.

Bernard Conlon, 49, from Cartron Bay in Sligo, said he regretted making the false allegations, which led to the arrest of two men in 1998 and 1999. “I was led and said by a certain person up the garden path. I feel sorry for the people who were injured and the guards that got involved in it.”

He said it was Sergeant John White, from the Donegal Division, who had prompted him to make the death threat allegations against two members of the extended McBrearty family, Mark McConnell and Michael Peoples.