Morris Tribunal condemns garda negligence

Caroline O’Doherty, John Breslin and Cormac O’Keeffe

In his second interim report, tribunal chairman Judge Frederick Morris described the investigation into the death of cattle dealer Richie Barron as “an extraordinary shambles”.

Judge Morris said: “There is evidence of willful blunders, gross negligence, laziness, emotionally wrong-headed rushes to judge people as guilty and a determination by some parties to ensure that, even if there was no evidence, that the suspicions formulated were going to stick and stick permanently.”

Justice Minister Michael McDowell described the findings as “disturbing and depressing”.

Equally disturbing was the fact that the tribunal had to work through “an impenetrable jungle of lies, deceit, prevarication and obstruction” to get to the truth.

The report is with the Director of Public Prosecutions, who may bring criminal charges.

Mr McDowell said disciplinary proceedings would also be “urgently considered” by the Garda Commissioner and by the Government where senior officers were concerned.

A dozen gardaí are singled out for specific criticisms, including for criminal negligence, reprehensible conduct and corruption.

The judge said he was reluctant to conclude that senior officers were corrupt but the investigation they oversaw was “prejudiced, tendentious and utterly negligent in the highest degree”.

“Chief Superintendent Denis Fitzpatrick, Superintendent John Fitzgerald, Detective Superintendent Joseph Shelley and Detective Inspector John McGinley all share in various degrees the burden of fault for this matter.”

Mr McDowell is to seek a full Dáil debate on the 670-page report the week after next but he came in for a hammering by the opposition, which pointed out that the first report, published a year ago, had not yet been discussed.

The minister also announced he would create a new legal obligation on gardaí to account for their behaviour after the report found they were able to hide behind solicitors, the Garda Representative Association and their constitutional right to silence. The Morris Tribunal was set up to inquire into a series of garda scandals in Donegal, including the botched investigation into Mr Barron’s death eight years ago and the framing of members of the McBrearty family for his murder.

The report concludes that Mr Barron was not murdered but died as the result of a hit and run accident, the main suspect for which is now living in Britain. The tribunal, which has cost over E17 million to date, continues to examine other aspects of the affair.

Frank McBrearty Jnr, one of those framed, called last night for Mr McDowell and the Garda Commissioner to be sacked.