Man cried after making false death threat claims
A Sligo man broke down crying after he admitted making false statements about a silver bullet death threat, the Morris Tribunal heard today.
Bernard Conlon, 49, from Cartron Bay in Sligo, was arrested in January 2000 by detectives from the Carty team, which had been set up to investigate allegations of corruption in the Donegal Division.
He told the tribunal that he had originally stuck to his guns and maintained his false story that Mark McConnell and Michael Peoples had threatened him with a silver bullet at his home in July 1998 to prevent him from giving evidence in an after-hours court case involving their cousin Frank McBrearty Junior.
“I was telling lies at the beginning and then I was fired down into the cell. I was left in the cell for half an hour, then brought upstairs again with a heap of men around me. They were firing questions at me and shouting.”
He said he was brought back again to his cell in Manorhamilton garda station in Leitrim, where he spent the whole night thinking of what to do.
“I told Detective Garda Jim Fox I wanted to make a clean confession. I think I might have broke down crying in the station,” he said.
Mr Conlon has told the tribunal that he was prompted to make the false allegations by Garda Sergeant John White, who thought the McBrearty’s and their extended family were responsible for the death of cattle dealer Richie Barron.
He was later convicted of making false statements, while Sergeant White, who is currently suspended from the force, was acquitted on charges of perverting the course of justice at Letterkenny Circuit Court last January.
After he made his confession, Mr Conlon received an unusual visit at his home from a bed and breakfast owner in Raphoe, County Donegal, that he knew.
He said Mary McGranaghan, who had never previously visited him, seemed to have been sent on an errand to pick up on what was going on.
“She said John White was a very decent man and that they (the Carty team) were trying to pin things on him. The flashy tie shirt boys, she used to call them.”
Mr Conlon also told the tribunal that he had phoned Sergeant White about a mysterious letter he received from Billy Flynn, the private investigator employed by the McBrearty family.
“I asked him did he know this man, Mr Flynn. ‘I know the f*****’, he says.”
Mr Conlon said he had given the letter to gardaí and added that he did not know the origins of a second sheet of paper, believed to be forged, in which he appeared to agree to take a bribe from Mr Flynn.
“I don’t know where that letter came from. That was a whole stitch up, chairman,” he said.
Judge Morris adjourned the tribunal an hour early because Mr Conlon was unwell.
