Ex-senior officer admits affidavit responsibility

The former top garda in Donegal today took responsibility for an unorthodox affidavit used to fight a bitter lawsuit against a publican who claimed harassment.

Court papers from 1997 named Frank McBrearty Senior’s son and nephew as suspects in an unsolved killing in Raphoe even though they had not been charged - a break from normal rules of justice.

Retired Chief Superintendent Denis Fitzpatrick said he asked one of his superintendents to compile a document which formed the basis of the affidavit.

The job was given to shamed ex-Superintendent Kevin Lennon who was found to have set up hoax IRA arms dumps to further his career.

But Mr Fitzpatrick told the Morris Tribunal into garda corruption that the affidavit was his responsibility.

“Ultimately I made the affidavit,” he said.

He said he asked Lennon to give him the facts in relation to a series of charges brought against the McBreartys over liquor licensing breaches.

But Lennon also noted that Frank McBrearty Junior and his cousin, Mark McConnell, were suspected of an unsolved killing even though it had nothing to do with the licensing issue. No charges were ever brought against the pair and the killing has been declared a hit-and-run.

Mr Fitzpatrick, who took early retirement in 2004 amid findings of negligence by the Tribunal, said he thought the information was correct.

“Before the affidavit I checked it and I was satisfied everything was correct,” he said.

Publican Frank McBrearty Senior brought the case in 1997, claiming uniformed officers were calling to his Raphoe premises every night, at times spending more than an hour inside.

At the same time, gardaí were trying to solve the mysterious death of cattle dealer Richie Barron.

More than 60 charges of liquor licensing breaches were brought against the McBreartys in the late 1990s, but all were withdrawn by the Director of Public Prosecutions in 2000.

Around the same time, gardai pursued Mr McBrearty Junior over the killing of Mr Barron in Raphoe in October 1996. He was framed for murder but the Tribunal found the death is an unsolved hit-and-run.

Naming the pair created further huge divisions among communities in Raphoe which still exist almost a decade later.