Garda admits discrepancies not probed

DISCREPANCIES in the statement of Noel McBride which incriminated the McBrearty family in the death of Richie Barron in Raphoe, Co Donegal, were never followed up with essential inquiries.

"It should have been done but that was not my function at the time," Sergeant Martin Moylan told the Morris Tribunal yesterday.

"We were told that in relation to McBride's statement we were not to do any checking," he said.

McBride later retracted his statement, admitting he was not in Raphoe on October 14, 1996, the night cattle dealer Barron was killed in an apparent hit and run.

Senior Counsel Paul McDermott asked why there was no review of his allegations. "Here we have a prosecution-supporting statement and it's not analysed at all," he said.

"Was there some kind of agenda? If it's against the McBrearty's that's great, let's not pursue it?"

But Sgt Moylan simply replied: "I agree it should have been done."

Eight statements were made to gardaí which related to the movements of the McBrearty family that night, the tribunal heard.

One reported various incidents which occurred on the night in question - October 14, 1996 including a fight outside a pub central to the investigation.

But despite contrasting strongly with McBride's evidence, Sgt Moylan admitted that it had not rung alarm bells as to the reliability of McBride.

Six weeks after Mr Barron was found dead, supposedly murdered, McBride was brought in for questioning about a stolen television aerial, value IR£27. In the course of the interview, McBride apparently mentions he was in Raphoe on the night of the death and has information.

After disposing of the aerial business, three, and at one time four gardaí, were in the interview room to hear McBride's tale.

At first, he seems reluctant, protesting that he was at a Christening and then at home on the night.

But, after what Mr Justice Frederick Morris referred to as some badgering, he folds and decides to tell all.

He was in Raphoe, he had no money so spent most of his time hanging around DJs' chip shop, sometimes walking up and down the road to keep warm.

Then he decides to go steal an aerial from the local Tech. It was not made clear whether this was the same aerial or whether McBride was a serial aerial thief.

His route to the Tech would take him past a car park behind Frankie's nightclub. It was here that he saw Frank McBrearty Jnr and Mark McConnell coming down a pathway from the road where Mr Barron was found.

On a child-like scrawl of a map drawn up by one of the interviewing gardaí, X marked the spot where McBride claims he stood and watched the two men cross the car park.

The drawing is a mess, there are obvious questions to be asked about McBride's positioning, there are what look like road lines running through the centre of the car park, an unexplained squiggle in the corner and a square marking the position of the Tech.

It's not bad, a broad outline, Mr Justice Morris said as he consoled the clearly embarrassed artist, yesterday's witness Sgt Martin Moylan, the man in charge of managing the Barron incident room and who sat in and asked questions during the McBride interview.

Yet, on the basis of this interview, the details of which were not checked, more than a dozen people were arrested days later. Two were arrested on suspicion of murder, one of whom supposedly confessed after an interview with two detectives from Garda HQ.

There followed years of alleged intimidation and harassment and hundreds of summonses against the McBrearty family, the Carty investigation, and now the Morris Tribunal.

And Sgt Moylan, as incident room manager, should never even have been in the interview room. An investigation, headed by the Assistant Commissioner Kevin Carty, was then launched in 1999 after the McBrearty family alleged they had been harassed by local gardaí during the investigation.

The Flynns, Gilmartin's cheque and selective amnesia

Padraig Flynn:

Gave the cheque to his wife and asked her to place it in an account in Castlebar.

Says he never knew his wife lodged the Gilmartin money into one of the non-resident accounts.

Said it was a political donation for himself, not for the party.

Said he never asked for a written record.

Claimed he was not aware of three accounts in his name in Castlebar for a non-existent British address he never lived at.

Dorothy Flynn:

Did not recall how three non-resident accounts were set-up.

Said she lodged the Gilmartin money in June 1989 for her husband.

Withdrew £25,000 in October and the same in November, stored in the family safe.

Withdrew £37,553 from her Monaghan account in 1997 to help buy farm lands in north Mayo.

Was awarded farm grants amounting to £140,000 over 20 years for the land.

Said she "never set foot" on the property.

Beverly Flynn:

Got £25,000 from her father in November 1989, which she invested in three offshore funds through NIB.

Never asked her father the source of the funds and he never told her.

Cannot remember if it was cash or cheque.

Asked for all offshore correspondence to go through her.

Added another £10,000 of her parents' money in July 1990 to the offshore investments.

Invested another £33,000 of their money in 1993 into Chemical Bank in New York.

Denies having "selective amnesia".