Garda plotted to frame family for killing, tribunal told

A senior garda in charge of the investigation into cattle dealer Richie Barron’s death said a local garda connived with an informer and a witness to frame the McBrearty family, the Morris Tribunal heard today.

Supt John Fitzgerald, who was in charge of Letterkenny district between October 1996 and February 1997, said he felt Garda John O’Dowd had worked with an informer, William Doherty, and the witness, Noel McBride, to ensure suspicion was pointed at the McBrearty’s.

Supt Fitzgerald said the investigation was full of “skulduggery” and around that time there was a “culture” in Donegal towards informers.

“I am nearly 40 years in the gardaí,” he said. “In all my time I never came across anything like this. Pure solid skulduggery that went on in the undercurrent.”

Supt Fitzgerald said he was not ‘privy’ at the time to the fact that Mr Doherty was a Garda informer and he had asked Garda O’Dowd to tell who had alerted him to the witness, Mr McBride.

He said: “The people that knew William Doherty was John O’Dowd, (Supt) Kevin Lennon and Chief Supt (Denis) Fitzpatrick.”

Former-Supt Kevin Lennon told the tribunal there was no evidence that he knew the informer.

Supt Fitzgerald said he had accepted as “perfectly genuine” Mr McBride’s witness statement that placed several people in Raphoe town on the night of the death of cattle dealer, Mr Barron, in October 1996.

“I read the statement and when he said when he was there for the purpose of breaking into the technical school that was a very good reason for him to be there,” he said.

The tribunal heard there were checks made on the statement.

“I can only talk in hindsight but my opinion is that Garda O’Dowd and William Doherty were working on this McBride fellow,” the superintendent told the tribunal.

He told the tribunal he based his views partly upon Garda O’Dowd’s failure to tell him about Mr Doherty and the number of phone calls between Garda O’Dowd and the informer.

Later the tribunal chair, Justice Frederick Morris, said from early on in the investigation it appeared there were inquiries made directly related to Frank McBrearty Jnr and Mark McConnell being suspects.

He added: “Before ever you got any hard information to back it up at all.”

The superintendent replied: “Alongside that there were other investigations going on, Gazza Gallagher was being investigated in-depth, cars were being taken in and jacked up and looked at, there were various avenues of investigation and that was another avenue of investigation.”

The tribunal also heard that when Supt Fitzgerald moved from the Letterkenny district in February 1997 he kept the original of the alleged statement of confession from Frank McBrearty Jnr, which he has consistently claimed he never made.

Supt Fitzgerald said he kept it in his office safe for protection and had offered it to the new Letterkenny district officer, former-Supt Kevin Lennon, but he did not take it.

The tribunal heard a March 1998 de-briefing document on the investigation stated: “In fact this all important statement is not in the possession of the investigation team and has not been viewed by them.”

Supt Fitzgerald said if anyone from the investigation team had asked him he would have handed it over for a ‘receipt’, as he later did to Chief Supt Austin McNally.