Questions should have been raised over the reliability and motivation of damning statements implicating a Raphoe publican in the death of a local cattle dealer, it was claimed tonight.
The Morris Tribunal heard three pieces of vital information placing Frank McBrearty junior near the scene of Richie Barron's death turned out to be "damp squibs".
But it emerged officers investigating the suspected hit-and-run failed to fully investigate whether informants were plying officers with malicious information or had simply made mistakes.
Superintendent John McGinley, a senior detective with more than 30 years experience, said officers should have spotted a series of discrepancies in evidence passed on by witnesses. "Perhaps we should have," the Supt said.
"It is a difficult question chairman, because if the three pieces of information came in one after the other alarm bells might ring, but if they came in months apart they might get lost in the system.
The Supt, a top detective in the Barron death probe and now based in Galway, refused to be drawn on what motivated informants. "With the benefit of hindsight one can look back and say yes there may be a current running through this, back then the guy in the incident room may not have seen this," he said.
"That there were people in the background that were putting in false information and were winding this up, that in my experience is extremely rare and that is why I use the word unprecedented," Supt McGinley said.
The Supt reiterated in all his time in the force he had never experienced an investigation that was plagued by so many false or misleading statements.
The tribunal was also told gardai were ordered to go out and find witnesses to strengthen the informants' stories. Up to 20 statements from local people failed to back up claims made by a key informant, Noel McBride alias Mr X, that Mr McBrearty jnr and his cousin Mark McConnell were seen coming from the scene of the fatal hit-and-run.
The Supt refuted claims Mr X, was a "gormless, old devil". He said Mr X first came to light as a witness, but as the investigation progressed he became an informer whose identity was protected over fears he would be intimidated.
The Morris Tribunal is examining levels of corruption amongst the Garda in County Donegal over the last decade. The current module is investigating the events surrounding the death of cattle dealer Mr Barron in October 1996. ends
