Tribunal examining deletion of telephone records
The Morris Tribunal is investigating how eircom home phone records containing vital information were erased, it emerged today.
Detective Sergeant Hugh Smith told the tribunal that the records were requested after Michael and Charlotte Peoples alleged extortion calls were made to their home accusing them of involvement in the death of cattle dealer Richie Barron in Raphoe, Co Donegal.
The tribunal heard that two sets of records from eircom showed no incoming calls to the People’s home in November 9, 1996.
“There was a problem there, they weren’t on the list even though Det Sgt Henry had them on the list,” Letterkenny-based Det Sgt Smith said.
He told the tribunal they had an itemised telephone bill from Pat Doherty, which showed there were four or five calls made by his son, William, to the People’s house.
There was also other information that one of the calls originated from the home of Raphoe Garda John O’Dowd.
The tribunal heard then a third set of records was offered which showed calls to the People’s home from William Doherty’s phone but not from Garda O’Dowds.
“Eventually I think evidence was given from Telecom Éireann showing records which completely erased incoming telephone calls to the People’s for a period of time,” Peter Charleton SC said.
Mr Charleton said the Carty team, which looked into the investigation of Mr Barron’s death, also had trouble with Telecom Éireann in getting telephone records.
He added that agents of the tribunal were investigating how the eircom phone records came to be erased.
Earlier, the tribunal heard that 20 pages were missing from a correspondence book that was logging the investigation into Mr Barron’s death.
Anthony Barr SC said the correspondence log only started several days after Mr Barron’s accident on October 14, 1996.
Sergeant John O’Toole, who was part of the investigating team, said: “It is a complete surprise to me I didn’t realise the pages were missing at all. It is possible that the book may have been used for some purpose prior to the investigation and those pages were removed.”
The tribunal heard pages 24 to 30 were also missing. The pages appeared to have logged the period November 1996 to February 1997 during which vital witness statements were taken and arrests made.
Judge Frederick Morris asked Sgt O’Toole, who worked in the incident room, if he would have noticed if pages had been missing at the time.
Sgt O’Toole said: “I have no recollection of things missing.”
Letterkenny based Det Sgt Smith who took a statement in 1997 from one of the central witnesses Noel McBride during which he alleged that Frank McBrearty Snr offered him bribes. These were later all withdrawn.
The detective said that Noel McBride “struck me as a person of low intelligence”. He added if there were any problems with Mr McBride’s statements it would come out with cross-checking.
He later added: “It was hard to believe that he could stay in the system for almost 12 months with the type of lies he was telling and not be sussed out.”
