Garda complaint board took nine months to act

The Morris tribunal has been told it took the Garda Complaints Board nine months to act on an accusation from Donegal man Mark McConnell that he was being "set up" by gardaí he named in a letter of complaint.

Mr McConnell outlined his claims in a letter in February 1999, which was sent by solicitors Binchy & Co to the board.

However, Chief Supt John Carey was not dispatched to Raphoe on behalf of the complaints board until the following November to interview Mr McConnell and the members of the force against whom the allegations of wrongdoing had been made. Mr McConnell declined to give a statement to the board.

His initial letter of complaint to the board was not read out at the tribunal yesterday.

Former superintendent Kevin Lennon, who is representing himself, objected to its contents entering the public domain on the basis that Mr McConnell had stated he would not be returning to the tribunal and so could not be cross-examined.

Earlier, the tribunal was read a statement that Mr McConnell, a cousin of Frank McBrearty jnr, had given to gardaí at the time of his arrest in Letterkenny.

He was arrested on suspicion that he and Michael Peoples had threatened Bernard Conlon with a silver bullet in Sligo.

In the statement to two gardaí interviewing him, Mr McConnell insisted he was innocent of the allegation and that it had been fabricated by three gardaí, whom he referred to as "stooges". He said the two officers interviewing him were "donkeys" for allowing themselves been drawn into the false allegations.

"Wait and see your story falling apart," he told them.

The allegations against him and Mr Peoples have since been found to be false. The current "silver bullet" module of the tribunal is investigating the circumstances surrounding the arrest and detention of Mr McConnell in October 1998 and of Mr Peoples in May 1999.

Mr McConnell, while under arrest, said the allegation that he and Mr Peoples threatened Mr Conlon with a silver bullet was "set up" by Det Sgt John White and another person. Sgt White was later cleared.

Mr Conlon has alleged that in August 1997 Sgt White told him to buy pints of alcohol after closing time in a bar owned by the Breartys in Raphoe.

The tribunal heard evidence from Garda Noel Keavney yesterday that he knew nothing of any plan to deliberately detect Mr Conlon in the pub after hours.

He estimated there were 40 people in the bar when he called for a second time just before 3am. A colleague, Garda Shaun Barrett, took the name of one person present, that of Mr Conlon.