Barron death probe riddled with errors
Judge Frederick Morris’ report on the flawed garda investigation into the death of Donegal cattle dealer Richie Barron highlighted some shocking mistakes and inadequacies in the inquiry.
Mr Barron’s body was found lying on the roadside near his Raphoe home in the early hours of October 14, 1996.
Judge Morris found gardai failed to properly examine the scene of the crime or to properly investigate Mr Barron’s death.
Despite no evidence pointing to murder, officers rallied to that conclusion and set about constructing a case against those whom they believed to be responsible.
Here are some of Judge Morris’s findings on the investigation:
:: No forensic examination was conducted at the scene of the crime until much later after Mr Barron’s body had been removed and the immediate area had been walked on, driven over and cleaned up.
:: No forensic examination was conducted of Mr Barron’s body.
:: Garda Padraig Mulligan, who was supposed to be on duty in Raphoe at the time of the death could not be found and did not answer his call from Central Communications.
“The evidence before the Tribunal was to the effect that he was drinking in a public house in Lifford with Garda John O’Dowd, his off-duty colleague, at the time,” Mr Justice Morris said.
:: Judge Morris said officers in a patrol car from Lifford deliberately delayed answering a call in the absence of Garda Mulligan in order to have a meal break.
“They deliberately deflected the call elsewhere to avoid answering the call. If any confirmation was needed as to the lack of enthusiasm that they had for answering the call, then it is provided by the scandalous way in which they behaved once they did answer the call. They did nothing to investigate the crime against Mr Barron.
“They failed to preserve the scene, they failed to carry out any worthwhile investigations, either immediately or subsequent to their arrival at the call.
“They then wrote up reports and went home without informing a superintendent of a suspicious death.”
:: The funeral was not halted and Mr Barron’s body was buried when the correct course of action upon the initiation of a murder inquiry, according to the Garda Manual, explicitly requires that any violent death should be first proved to be a murder.
:: Speculation at Mr Barron’s wake was turned into a credible statement capable of being acted on that Mr Barron had been murdered. This was relayed as “talk of the wake house” through Garda John O’Dowd to Chief Superintendent Denis Fitzpatrick and, in turn, repeated as fact to the District Superintendent, John Fitzgerald.
:: From the earliest days of the investigation, malicious speculation that Frank McBrearty Jr, Mark McConnell and, to a lesser extent, Michael Peoples were the culprits in this “murder hunt” were recorded in the conference notes without any tangible evidence to support such a line of enquiry.
:: A statement by Robert Noel McBride that he had seen Mark McConnell and Frank McBrearty Jr coming up the car park from the direction of the pathway that might lead to the scene of the crime was taken as a crucial element to prove their involvement in “murder”, yet McBride was not in Raphoe on the night in question.
:: At least one extortion call was made to the home of Michael and Charlotte Peoples by unreliable informer William Doherty knowingly from the home of Garda John O’Dowd. “He (O’Dowd) was confronted about this and he lied repeatedly about having had any involvement in it,” Mr Justice Morris said.
“When Garda O’Dowd discovered that the call could be traced to his house, I am satisfied that he went to Superintendent (Kevin) Lennon with a view to having the matter hushed up and, at Superintendent Lennon’s suggestion, altered his schedule of duty in Raphoe Garda Station for November 9 so as to indicate that he was in the station at the time, thereby giving himself an alibi.”
:: Judge Morris said he was satisfied that Chief Superintendent Denis Fitzpatrick, Superintendent Lennon and Garda O’Dowd tried to hide these phone calls.
No-one has ever been convicted of involvement in the hit-and-run death of Mr Barron.
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