Morris Tribunal: Gardaí regarded anyone who made statements that contradicted their view that two Donegal men were murder suspects as a potential suspect themselves, the tribunal heard yesterday.
Sgt Joe Hannigan told the tribunal that gardaí decided two cousins, Mr Frank McBrearty jnr and Mr Mark McConnell, were suspects in the death of Mr Richie Barron because of two anonymous statements which placed them near the scene of the cattle dealer's death at 1 a.m. on the morning of October 14th, 1996.
"We had a mindset at that stage based on information that they were seen coming down through the car-park," Sgt Hannigan said. "If statements were brought to the conference that were at variance with what we thought was right, these people became suspects."
This was particularly true if the potential suspects were related to the McBrearty family, the sergeant added. "If the statements were unclear or if the times covered Mr McBrearty or Mark McConnell, that's how they came into the frame."
The garda said a pub argument between Mr Barron and Mr McConnell was considered significant in the light of other evidence.
"On its own the row wouldn't have meant much, but when you added in witnesses and times, it made them very strong suspects," Sgt Hannigan said. He said the absence of debris at the site made gardaí suspect it was not a traffic accident, and a day or two later, Garda John O'Dowd said, a witness said he saw Mr Frank McBrearty jnr and Mr Mark McConnell coming down the car-park around 1 a.m. The following Monday, a witness that Det Garda Pat Teague had spoken to apparently corroborated this information. All of this made the two men seem "very strong suspects" at the time.
The tribunal barrister, Mr Anthony Barr SC, asked if statements that supported Mr McConnell were ignored or discarded. "Maybe ignored wouldn't be the right word, but they weren't given significance," Sgt Hannigan said.
Earlier Garda Tina Fowley told the tribunal that at a pre-arrest conference on December 2nd, 1996, "an overall picture of the investigation was presented to the conference" of the investigation into Mr Richie Barron.
"Anybody who was at variance with what was believed to be the perception of what happened that night was a candidate for arrest," she said.
On December 4th, 1996, 12 members of the extended McBrearty family and their employees were arrested. The events of that day will form a separate module of the tribunal.