Sergeant urged man to drink after hours

AN illiterate man was told by a garda sergeant that he would pay him if he stayed in a nightclub after hours with as much drink as possible in front of him, the Morris Tribunal into garda corruption heard yesterday.

Bernard Conlon, 49, from Cartron Bay in Sligo is the key witness in the tribunal’s investigations into a maze of false allegations made against two members of the extended McBrearty family. Mr Conlon told the tribunal he had agreed to go to the nightclub owned by the McBrearty family in Raphoe, Co Donegal, in August 1997 after being prompted by Sergeant John White.

He said to me that he’d pass it on to the members and to have as much drink and to be on the premises as late as possible,” he said.

Mr Conlon later made several court appearances at the behest of gardaí in their prosecutions of the McBrearty family for licencing law breaches.

Mr Conlon grew up in Co Meath and left a special needs school at 16 without being able to read or write. He moved to Sligo in the 1980s after serving jail sentences for burglary and other offences. He first met Sgt White in July 1997, after he had complained about not being served a meal in Frankie’s nightclub.

He told the tribunal that he was later promised money by Sgt White if he co-operated in being found drinking late in McBrearty’s nightclub. “He told me he’d look after me with money-wise. I had no reason to hate the McBreartys. Only what John was telling me about them.”

The tribunal has heard gardaí had given instructions to keep the pressure on the McBreartys, who they viewed as the main suspects in their disastrous investigation into the death of cattle dealer Richie Barron. In August 1997, Mr Conlon went to Frankie’s nightclub with two friends and ordered an extra pint after the bar closed.

Two gardaí entered the nightclub at 2.55am and took Mr Conlon’s name. He was told later that year by Sgt White that he did a ‘great job’.

Sgt White, who is currently suspended from the force, was acquitted on charges of perverting the course of justice at Letterkenny Circuit Court last January. His senior counsel, John Whelan, said the judge had found Mr Conlon to be a totally unreliable witness who had committed perjury in a number of areas.

Mr Conlon was later convicted of making false statements against two members of the extended McBrearty family, Mark McConnell and Michael Peoples.