Report: Barron arrests in Donegal were 'unlawful'

The latest report from the Morris Tribunal has concluded that a number of people were arrested and detained unlawfully in the investigation into the death of Richie Barron.

The tribunal was set up to investigate allegations of garda corruption in Donegal in the 1990s.

Mr Barron was found dead on a roadside near Raphoe in October 1996 following an apparent hit-and-run.

The Gardaí treated the incident as murder and today's report says a number of people were unlawfully arrested and detained as part of the investigation.

It says some of the detainees were mistreated in custody, mainly through verbal and, in some cases, physical abuse.

The tribunal also says it does not accept the evidence of several Gardaí in relation to the investigation.

Meanwhile, today's report also deals with claims that conversations between solicitors and detainees at Letterkenny Garda Station were secretly recorded by the Gardaí.

It concludes that this allegation is false.

“It cheapened the presumption of innocence and undermined the truthful resolution of a very tragic case,” inquiry chairman Mr Justice Frederick Morris said in the report.

The former High Court judge said his latest findings were concerned with the potential for catastrophic injustice when laws are flouted, protections abandoned and lies told by some gardaí in pursuit of those whom they regard as guilty.

“That unhealthy focus or tunnel vision in the course of the Barron investigation led to manufactured evidence, wrongful arrests and completely improper behaviour by gardaí towards prisoners in their custody,” he said.

“It dominated the lives and struck at the reputations of two families: the extended Quinn family and the McBrearty family. It did serious damage to the reputation of An Garda Siochana, and its integrity and professionalism.

“It contributed towards social division in the town of Raphoe where bitterness and resentment related to the death of the late Richard Barron and the subsequent Garda investigation continue to this day.”