Corruption, lies and wall of silence
It found a number of senior gardaí in the Donegal division conspired to target the extended Quinn and McBrearty families and to seek false convictions for Mr Barron’s murder.
Mr Justice Frederick Morris’s sixth report was published yesterday and made a number of findings against named gardaí.
It said former garda detective superintendent, John McGinley, had committed “shocking perjury” during his evidence to the tribunal.
The report said Mr McGinley was the driving force behind the cover-up when an early investigation examined allegations of corruption.
“The tribunal registers in the strongest possible terms its shock at the deliberate perjury of Mr McGinley.”
In three volumes, the 1,400-page report said some people were unlawfully detained and mistreated, including suffering verbal and physical abuse.
Some of those arrested were shown pictures of Mr Barron after he had been hit by a car and others threatened with long jail sentences away from their families.
The report found that detectives had manufactured evidence in the case.
It said the tribunal had been “faced with gardaí who were determined to hide the truth of what happened”, and there had been a “deep-seated reluctance to concede that a colleague had acted incorrectly or wrongfully”.
It named individual gardaí.
These included Detective Garda John Dooley and Sergeant John White, who it said conspired to dig up mere rumours to use against Roisín McConnell.
She was arrested unlawfully, accused of being a “dirty, lying murdering bastard”, emotionally abused with threats on what would happen to her children and left in need of hospitalisation for mental illness shortly afterwards.
In addition, it said Garda Philip Collins by no means told the full truth with regards to the arrest and detention of Michael Peoples.
Both Mr Peoples and Mark McConnell were arrested and questioned on the basis of allegations by Bernard Conlon, which gardaí knew to be false.
Mr Conlon had said the two men presented him with a silver bullet — a threat to kill him if he spoke to police. Mr Justice Morris said this did not happen.
Detective Garda Brian McEntee’s evidence was deliberately evasive in places and the report found it incredible he did not remember certain conversations.
It found interview notes and confessions from the interview of Frank McBrearty Jnr had been forged.
The report also said Martin McCallion, the doorman at Frank McBrearty Jnr’s nightclub, was unlawfully arrested based on a false statement by local man Robert Noel McBride.
It said officer John O’Toole had been directed to do so by Sgt Martin Moylan on instructions from senior officers on the basis of what the report calls “deceit”.
In addition Seán Crossan, part-time doorman at the club, was arrested because he made a statement that contradicted Mr McBride’s false statement.
It states that the circumstances of the arrest of electrician brothers Gavin and Damien McDaid, in which garda cars chased their van at 9am to effect an arrest, “can be regarded as nothing but unacceptable”.
Gavin McDaid was kicked as he got out of the car and that his brother was called “a murdering bastard”.
While Frank McBrearty was found to have been treated inappropriately while in custody, the report also found he made a false confession — a claim he rejects.
While allegations that some confidential conversations between solicitors and clients were bugged, the report states that: “The tribunal was disturbed and dismayed at the extent to which covert taping was conducted by the gardaí, not alone of conversations with civilians but of conversations between gardaí supposedly working together”.
1996
October 13: Cattle dealer, Richie Barron, spends the last evening of his life in several pubs in Raphoe, Co Donegal. There is an incident between him and Mark McConnell.
October 14: 12.30am: Barron leaves the pub. He dies in hospital after being found on the road at 1am.
1.40am: local gardaí arrive at the scene which is not preserved for another 7.5 hours. A local doctor’s post-mortem suspects he was struck with a blunt instrument.
October 15: Rumours that Barron had been murdered reach Gda John O’Dowd. O’Dowd tells Chief Supt John Fitzpatrick who calls the head of the investigation, Supt Denis Fitzgerald, and says he has information that McConnell and Frank McBrearty Jr, murdered Barron.
October 16: Gardaí discuss with state pathologist, Dr John Harbison, whether to carry out a second postmortem. He isn’t told that gardaí suspect murder and says the post-mortem was adequate. Gardaí launch murder investigation.
November 29: Gardaí arrest Robert Noel McBride for the theft. He apparently tells gardaí he saw McConnell and McBrearty walking in fields at 1am on the night Barron died.
December 4: McConnell, McBrearty Jnr and Peoples arrested by gardaí. McBrearty apparently writes a statement that he assaulted Baron.
October 3: The officer now in charge of the case, Superintendent Kevin Lennon, visits Dr Harbison in Dublin and discusses the injuries on Barron’s body.
October 9: Lennon gets permission to exhume.
October 16: Fitzpatrick orders Lennon to cancel the exhumation. He refuses.
July 6: Barron’s body is exhumed. Dr Harbison finds marks on the body consistent with a road accident.
April 12: Dr Marie Cassidy, new state pathologist, concludes that a violent attack was “highly unlikely”.
Since the death of Richie Barron the McBrearty family and their staff receive 190 summonses for offences
July 15: The Morris Tribunal opens.
March 3: First day of hearing evidence.
July 15: Tribunal’s first report concludes fake explosives finds planted by Lennon and Det Gda Noel McMahon to advance careers.
June 1: Second Morris Report is published, highlighting negligence among top gardaí and corruption among lower ranks. McBrearty, McConnell and Peoples exonerated.
January 16: Frank McBrearty Jnr walks out of the tribunal for fourth time.
October 25: Frank McBrearty senior is awarded 2.5m by the High Court.
October 31: Frank McBrearty Snr and his wife, Rosalind, settle their personal action against the State for €3 million.
December 10: The winding-up of the tribunal begins after 685 days.
December 13: Tribunal holds its final oral hearing. Mr Justice Frederick Morris, estimates 1,000 witnesses had appeared before it
May 6: The Department of Justice publishes full Morris Tribunal report.
