Witness warned over 'obstructing' Mahon probe

The chair of the Morris Tribunal today warned a Donegal man may face severe penalties if he felt he was deliberately obstructing the inquiry.

Former High Court President and tribunal chairman, Mr Justice Frederick Morris, told Paul ‘Gazza’ Gallagher to change his attitude overnight.

Mr Gallagher, who has been in trouble with the law in Donegal, consistently refused to reveal whether statements made to gardaí after the death of cattle dealer Richie Barron were true.

“We’re not playing games with him,” Mr Justice Morris told Mr Gallagher’s legal team, “and we expect him to use the intelligence that he obviously has to answer the questions.”

Mr Justice Morris added that if he was of the opinion Mr Gallagher was deliberately trying to obstruct the tribunal, he was obliged to use the powers vested in him to address the issue.

During the heated exchange, Mr Gallagher, from Letterkenny, threatened not to return to the inquiry the following day.

“Well I’ll be up the road to Letterkenny,” he said.

Under the Tribunal Act a witness who does not co-operate with the inquiry, is guilty of an offence upon conviction and may face a fine of up to €10,000 and/or two years behind bars.

Mr Gallagher had told the tribunal that statements he made to gardaí, implicating Frank McBrearty Jnr in the death of Mr Barron in Raphoe in October 1996, were made under duress.

He claimed up to 20 gardaí had quizzed him over a 12-hour period on one occasion, telling him that Mr McBrearty Jnr had blamed him for the death of Mr Barron.

Mr Gallagher, 29, said the only way he thought he could convince gardaí of his innocence was to tell a “pack of lies.”

He claimed: “The gardaí said to me: ‘I don’t care who goes up the road. It’s either you or young McBrearty. I’ll give you 10 minutes to think about it’.”

He added that he thought his only way out was to try to frame Mr McBrearty Jnr.

“They kept on blaming me, and calling me a murderer, and saying: ‘How could you leave a man lying dying on the side of the road?”’

Gallagher added: “That Frank McBrearty was blaming me, so I just made up a pack of lies.”

The tribunal is looking into a range of allegations concerning Garda operations in Co Donegal during the 1990s.

The corruption claims inquiry is now focussing on events which followed the apparent hit-and-run death of Raphoe cattle dealer Richie Barron.

It was a Garda investigation into Mr Barron’s death during which members of the extended McBrearty family were questioned that led to the establishment of the corruption inquiry.