Senior gardaí concocted murder confession, tribunal told

Senior gardaí fabricated a suspect’s confession to a murder that never happened, it was alleged today.

During numerous heated outbursts at the Morris Tribunal, Frank McBrearty Jnr accused four garda detectives and an inspector of framing him almost a decade ago.

He alleged a former garda officer present at the hearing was responsible for the death of Richie Barron, who was later found to have been a victim of a hit-and-run collision.

Mr McBrearty was wrongly arrested, along with his cousin Mark McConnell on December 4, 1996, for the murder of the Donegal cattle dealer.

A confrontational Mr McBrearty Jnr made a dramatic u-turn by turning up late to give evidence at the hearings for the first time since 2003, having vowed never to return.

The tribunal had to be adjourned twice, before he arrived, and then again when he demanded the removal of two garda officers he said were staring at him.

Justice Frederick Morris had to ask the witness to calm down on a number of occasions during several angry outbursts.

During the botched murder probe, Detective Sergeant John Melody, Detective Sergeant Edward O’Grady, Detective Sergeant Gerard McGrath and Detective Garda John Fitzpatrick from the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation interrogated Mr McBrearty Jnr.

Asked by tribunal barrister Mr Paul McDermott SC about his apparent signature in a disputed statement of admission, Mr McBrearty Jnr said it was fabricated by the Dublin-based detectives and Inspector John McGinley from Letterkenny Garda Station.

“Four people from Dublin tried to fabricate evidence against me and the guards in Donegal tried to frame me for murder – a murder that didn’t even happen,” he shouted.

“So don’t you lecture me Mr McDermott about the fact that I made a confession when I didn’t make one. I won’t calm down. You are making accusations against me that you can’t stand up and my legal team is not here to protect me.”

He added: “Whatever they done they concocted it up between them. If that’s my signature, it was got by a trick.”

McBrearty said he later dropped to his knees in the corridor of Letterkenny Garda Station, raised his hands and swore to God he would expose what had happened during his interrogation that day.

“I was tortured like the Nazis tortured the Jews, and the way the Taliban is being tortured by the Americans,” he told the tribunal.

“They called me a murderer all day and they were telling me all day what was going to happen to me. Fitzpatrick and Melody told me I would get shagged in Mountjoy Prison and that my father couldn’t cover up anymore. I didn’t know what they were talking about.

“(I was told) I was going to get life (sentence), Mark McConnell was going to get life.”

Mr McBrearty Jnr told the tribunal he was detained by around 25 gardaí at a road checkpoint while taking his children to school on the morning of his arrest.

He said he and his children were physically and mentally abused by the garda officers.

“The guards around the car started shouting ’get the murdering bastard handcuffed’, in the presence of my children,” he said.

“When Sergeant (Joseph) Hannigan saw I wasn’t getting provoked he shouted into the car: ‘Do you know your Daddy is a murderer?’. At this stage my children were hysterical.”