Garda sticks to belief that Barron died in hit-and-run

THE attitude of a garda officer to the mystery roadside death of a cattle dealer seven years ago was examined in fine detail yesterday by the Morris Tribunal into allegations of corruption in his force.

Superintendent John Fitzgerald, giving evidence for a third successive day at the Dublin-based inquiry, maintained Mr Barron died as the result of a hit-and-run accident at Raphoe, Co Donegal, on October 16, 1996. He stuck to that assessment in spite of information received by a senior officer from an informant that it had been murder and the naming of two chief suspects for the crime.

The information identified local men Frank McBrearty Junior, the member of a pub-owning family in Raphoe, and his cousin, Mark McConnell, as the suspects.