Disgraced superintendent 'rehearsed questioning of gardaí'

A disgraced superintendent conducted a ‘practice cross examination’ of two gardaí about their movements on the night a cattle dealer was killed in a suspected hit-and-run accident, the Morris Tribunal heard today.

Ex-garda John O’Dowd said Superintendent Kevin Lennon went through a series of questions about the night in a meeting at his house, before the Morris Tribunal was set up in 2002.

“He was going through the way you could be asked questions at the tribunal. ‘Where did you go?’ ‘What did you drink?’ 'Who parked the car?’ It lasted about half an hour and that was all we did,” he said.

On the night of October 14, 1996, Gda O’Dowd, who was off-duty, had been drinking in Lifford 10 miles away with a on-duty officer, Garda Padraig Mulligan.

Both gardaí were the first on the scene when the body of cattle dealer Richie Barron was found on the roadside in Raphoe, Co Donegal later that night, but have denied any involvement in the death.

Mr O’Dowd said the meeting between him, Gda Mulligan and Supt Lennon had been Lennon’s idea to give them a bit of practise of cross-examination.

Senior Counsel Peter Charleton, representing the tribunal, then asked Mr O’Dowd what was the purpose of doing that.

“What did you have to worry about in relation to your movements on the night? Why did you engage in a half-hour pretend cross-examination in order to get your story straight?”

Mr O’Dowd: “I suppose he (Lennon) was showing you, it was a hard place to be.”

Mr Charleton: “What’s a hard place?”

Mr O’Dowd: “This place.”

Mr O’Dowd and Mr Mulligan were dismissed from the force last year following an internal Garda inquiry. Mr Lennon was also dismissed following the first report of the Morris Tribunal, which found that he had told lies in evidence and orchestrated hoax explosives finds.

The tribunal has heard evidence from Mr O’Dowd that he was asked by Lennon to deny that extortion phone calls were made from his house to a local Donegal family by a Garda informer.

“I would say he was trying to practice on me to be able to stand up to see if we would deny the phone calls. But we didn’t get around to that,” said Mr O’Dowd.

He agreed with Mr Charleton that it was not hard to tell the truth to the tribunal about the events because they had actually happened and that ‘no amount of lies will ever change reality’.

The Morris Tribunal is investigating allegations of corruption against certain gardaí in the Donegal Division.