Conlon was used as agent by White in campaign against McBreartys

THE Morris Tribunal was unable to stand up claims that a garda detective urged a small-time crook to fabricate a story that he received a death threat from members of the extended McBrearty family.

Bernard Conlon, a repeat offender from Co Sligo, made a false complaint to gardaí that two men, Mark McConnell and Michael Peoples, came to his home in July 1998, produced a silver bullet and told him it would be waiting for him if he gave evidence against the McBrearty family in an upcoming after-hours drinking prosecution.

Conlon was subsequently charged and convicted of perjury after he repeated the story in court but he always maintained he had been put up to it by Detective Sergeant John White, who has been savagely criticised in the Morris reports.