Morris Tribunal: Discrepancies in a statement used to trigger the arrests of several members of the McBrearty family would have been caught if the statement had been properly processed, the tribunal has heard.
"All the cards were not on the table in the incident room," said Garda Tina Fowley, who worked in the incident room managing the investigation. "Certainly there should have been more transparency."
Garda case conferences were told the statement was "100 per cent", but it was retained by the district officer, Supt John Fitzgerald, and not processed.
Noel McBride, the man who made the statement, was identified only as Mr X. In September 1997, Mr McBride withdrew his statement. Garda Fowley said if the statement had been produced in the incident room "it would have gone through the process of being cross-checked".
The witness was "surprised" when she heard Frank McBrearty jnr had made a statement of admission while in custody. Mr McBrearty has always denied he made any confession, and the statement is unsigned. Mr McBrearty was released from custody despite the alleged confession, and his cousin Mark McConnell, who is named in the confession, was also released.
The two men became prime suspects after the focus of a Garda investigation moved from a hit-and-run to a murder inquiry.
Allegations of Garda corruption from the McBrearty family and others led to the setting up of the tribunal.
Garda Fowley told the tribunal she had been on sick leave for two years from 2000 as a result of "bullying and harassment", until she was suspended from duty.