Client 'did not tell' solicitor garda put gun in his mouth

A solicitor engaged by Damien McDaid when he was arrested in relation to the death of Co Donegal cattle dealer Richie Barron has said his client did not tell him gardaí put a gun in his mouth.

Pat McMyler of PA Dorian & Co solicitors said, however, that Mr McDaid might not have seen the point in reporting such an incident to him.

Mr McDaid, an electrician from Newtowncunningham, Co Donegal, was arrested for questioning about the circumstances surrounding the death of Mr Barron, who gardaí said had been murdered. The tribunal found he was a hit-and-run victim.

Mr McDaid told the tribunal that one of his Garda interviewers in Letterkenny Garda station, whose name he cannot remember but who he described as a heavy set balding man, made him kneel on the ground and put a handgun in his mouth when he failed to answer questions.

The same man hours earlier spat in his breakfast and jumped on his feet, Mr McDaid said.

Mr McMyler saw his client in the Garda station before the alleged incident with the handgun occurred. After his release Mr McDaid made no attempt to contact his solicitor to complain about this or any other treatment received at the hands of gardaí.

However, Mr McMyler told the tribunal that this was not necessarily unusual. "I would not necessarily put undue significance on his not seeking us out to make a complaint."

It was possible, he said, that Mr McDaid would have believed there was no point in making a complaint against gardaí because he would be ignored, and this was a reasonably commonly held view.

"An awful lot of people felt that was a pointless exercise, that was a view abroad . . . There was a view abroad that a great number of complaints were just binned."

Mr McMyler was not suggesting this meant the incident had happened, he told the tribunal: "It doesn't matter either way as far as I'm concerned."

Mr McDaid did not tell him someone had spat in his breakfast or that his bare feet had been stamped on.

Mr McDaid complained that gardaí were trying to get him to admit he was trying to cover up the circumstances of Mr Barron's death, but, Mr McMyler said, he made no other complaint of mistreatment.