A Garda detective today admitted he led a police corruption tribunal "up the garden path" by lying about interview notes he forged during a murder probe.
Detective Garda John Harkin confessed he altered the official files during the botched investigation into Donegal cattle dealer Richie Barron's death.
He apologised to the Morris Tribunal today and said he was ashamed for not telling the truth during evidence in July about his role in the subsequent Garda cover-up of the affair.
The detective was responsible for taking notes during the interrogation of mother-of-two Roisin McConnell, who was wrongly arrested in December 4, 1996, in connection with Mr Barron's death.
Mr Barron was later found to have died as a result of a hit-and-run collision. Complaints from other wrongly arrested suspects in the 'murder' case ultimately led to the tribunal and the unravelling of a web of corruption within the force.
Det Garda Harkin changed the police notes after being asked to in a late night telephone call from his colleague Detective Garda (now Sergeant) Brian McEntee, who dictated the alterations.
He removed from the record two questions asked during Ms McConnell's interrogation by the then Inspector John McGinley (later superintendent, recently retired) and amended the introduction.
Det Garda Harkin never told the corruption hearings about the forgeries when he took the stand at the start of the summer.
He later approached tribunal investigators and told them he had not given the full story of his involvement.
After giving new testimony, the officer said: "First of all I would like to apologise to Ms McConnell for my performance here in July... what you wanted from witnesses was the truth and you didn't get the truth in relation to this matter."
He further expressed his regret to Justice Morris for not disclosing details about the falsified police documents.
"I want to thank you for the opportunity to come back here and try and set the record straight in so far as I can. And to the respective legal teams who I also led up the garden path in relation to this."
He added: "It's something I'm ashamed of and deeply regret."
The questions from Inspector McGinley taken out of the Garda record were: "What sort of woman are you?" and "Are you a good woman and are you a religious woman?".
The original introduction was amended from: "I would say you're a good woman and I'm going to tell you what happened that night and you tell me if I'm telling you a lie" to "I am going to put this scenario to you and you tell me if I am telling you a lie."