'Barron death report tried not to embarrass gardaí'

A report to the Director of Public Prosecutions about the death of Raphoe cattle dealer Richie Barron tried to avoid embarrassing investigating gardai, it was claimed today.

Former Superintendent Kevin Lennon, who wrote the report, told the Morris Tribunal investigating allegations of garda corruption in Donegal he knew Frank McBrearty Jnr and Mark McConnell should not be charged with murder.

But senior counsel for the tribunal, Paul McDermott, said that the report made assumptions similar to the first investigation into Mr Barron’s death, and did not raise queries over problematic witness statements.

Mr McDermott said there was a reference to Mark McConnell having a “violent background” with no real evidence to back it up.

“I’ve nothing to back that other than the one incident,” Mr Lennon agreed.

Mr McDermott challenged Mr Lennon that the former officer was mindful of not embarrassing his colleagues in sections of the report.

“Yes I would say that is fair,” Mr Lennon replied.

“I would say that I didn’t want to become the hatchet man on my colleagues, but at the same time I was never going to allow the situation where Frank McBrearty and Mark McConnell were going to be in any way charged.”

Mr Lennon claimed: “I was a lone sailor in a sea of mud.

“Rightly or wrongly I thought I would be made to pay the price for this blatant cock-up.”

Mr Lennon said that he had developed his report as independently as he could and that omissions in the report were the result of the “monumental task” putting together the information.

“This report was written as a hurried job,” he said.

“Any report you write you miss things in it.

“There was no deliberate attempt to exclude anything.”

He said the only way he could have got to the bottom of the case was to have started investigating again, with an exhumation.

When the exhumation didn’t happen he was left with nothing but “paper and more paper” to put together a file to the DPP with, he told the tribunal.

Mr Lennon was also asked about turning a blind eye to his colleagues using equipment to surreptitiously record witnesses and suspects.

“I was aware that Sergeant John White used tape recorders from rumour and talk,” the former superintendent said.

“I didn’t move about it and I didn’t ask him about it, because it was up to himself to do what he thought was best.

But he said: “I certainly don’t believe in that process going on.”