Harassment claim informer unreliable, tribunal told
A Garda informer who alleged three gardaí were involved in various activities designed to harass the McBrearty family was completely unreliable, a former detective today told the Morris Tribunal.
Detective Richard Caplice, a retired member of the Carty investigation, said in 1999 William Doherty had given him information about Garda John O’Dowd, Detective Sergeant John White and Superintendent Kevin Lennon.
Det Caplice said: “There may have been a ring of truth in some of what he was saying but there was no way you could define what was truth or fiction.
“I felt he was making a lot of it up. I indicated that to the people at the incident centre. In almost every case I found most of it to be baseless.”
Det Caplice said Mr Doherty alleged he had moved explosives and made extortionate and harassing phone calls for Gda O’Dowd.
He said Mr Doherty was probably simply an informer for Gda O’Dowd for a number of years.
The tribunal was set up to look into the Garda murder investigation following cattle dealer Richie Barron’s death on October 14, 1996, in an apparent hit-and-run in Raphoe, Co Donegal.
An investigation, headed by the Assistant Commissioner Kevin Carty, was then launched in 1999 after the McBrearty family alleged they had been harassed by local gardaí during the investigation.
Earlier, the tribunal heard the initial scene of Mr Barron’s death was contaminated.
Sergeant Niall Coady told the tribunal when he was asked to go to the scene at around 9am, some seven-hours after Mr Barron’s death, the body had been removed.
He said the site had not been preserved which would be the normal course of action in a fatal hit-and-run case.
“It was a chaotic scene and unsightly to say the least,” Sgt Coady said.
Sgt Coady said there was blood on the road but the area had been swept by Mattie McBride who was living near the site.
“I certainly was perturbed by the fact the scene had been contaminated and it left me in a difficult situation.
“I was also annoyed that the road had been swept,” Sgt Coady said.
He told the tribunal he found a piece of skin and hair embedded in the road which he lifted with tweezers and placed it in a forensic bag.
“I could see that there was hair follicles and long hairs embedded in the tarmac surface,” Sgt Coady said after he closely examined the scene.
“It appeared to be affected by a brush and it had been pushed into roadway.”
The forensic laboratory confirmed it was Mr Barron’s.
He said it was more or less the same size dimensions as the piece of skin which Garda James McDwyer had reported seeing on the road the night before when the scene was not preserved.
Donegal gardaí then continued to comb the site of Mr Barron’s death for a possible weapon up until December 6, after they became suspicious foul-play might have been involved.
