Retired detective urges colleague to admit mistreatment of sisters

A retired detective broke down in tears today as he urged his former colleague to come clean about the abuse of two sisters in garda custody.

The Morris Tribunal was briefly postponed at one stage as John Dooley became so upset recalling his role in the mistreatment of the women in a botched murder investigation. He initially admitted the two Donegal mothers – Roisin McConnell and Katrina Brolly – were abused when wrongly arrested during a probe into the death of cattle dealer Richie Barron ten years ago.

However, in a second statement to tribunal investigators last June he further confessed that he and disgraced ex-Detective Sergeant John White pushed and shouldered Mrs McConnell.

An emotional Mrs McConnell got up at one stage during the evidence to thank the witness for confessing to his role in the incident and appealed to Mr White to do the same.

Solicitor for Mr White, Paudge Dorrian, accused Mr Dooley of lying in his original evidence to the tribunal inquiring into garda corruption and wrongdoing. But Mr Dooley insisted: “Any evidence I have given to this tribunal is the truth.”

He said after he saw Mrs McConnell’s statements to the tribunal he realised he had left out the shouldering incident.

“I made an additional statement, and it’s the truth Mr Dorrian, every word of it,” he said.

Mr Dooley denied his recollection of the mistreatment was unreliable and appealed to his former garda colleague to admit his share of the blame.

“It’s about time your client started telling the truth, Mr Dorrian,” he said.

Mr Dooley became upset a number of times, breaking down crying at one stage forcing tribunal chairman Justice Frederick Morris to temporarily adjourn the hearing.

“What I want to do is clear my conscience and deal with all the issues here and tell the truth,” he said.

A clearly upset Mrs McConnell intervened during the evidence to thank the witness.

“I would like to thank you for coming up here and telling the truth and I would like now for Mr Dorrian to advise his client to come up and tell the truth,” she said.