Garda admits seriousness of missing interview notes
A Detective Garda today admitted it was a serious matter that a number of the interview notes from a prime suspect in a murder went missing.
The Morris Tribunal, which is investigating garda corruption in Donegal, heard several interview notes from when Mark McConnell alleges he was abused by gardaí as he was being questioned on December 4, 1996 over the death of cattle dealer Richie Barron have disappeared.
Det Gda Michael O’Malley denied knowing how the notes from the controversial interview came to be misplaced and failed to make it into the murder investigation files.
Det Gda O’Malley said: “When I discovered that they were misplaced and that they were never located then I was surprised all right.”
The garda said Det Sgt James Leheny took notes during the interview and left these in the incident room.
Tribunal counsel, Paul McDermott, queried: “There is a pattern here from the afternoon in that none of the interview notes in which interviews that you are concerned become available.”
Det Gda O’Malley said: “According to Det Sgt Leheny, it is him that had the notes, and he went to the incident room and left them in the incident room.”
Mr McDermott questioned: “But in terms of Mr McConnell, who is obviously your prime suspect in the case, along with Mr McBrearty, it is quite a serious matter that notes would go missing?”
The detective replied: “It is, correct.”
He added: “I don’t know why they were misplaced or what happened that they were misplaced.”
Mr McConnell was wrongly arrested a number of times during the course of the botched investigation into the death of Mr Barron.
Gardaí believed Mr McConnell and his cousin Frank McBrearty Jnr had killed the cattle dealer.
However, it was later ruled that Mr Barron was the victim of a hit-and-run rather than assault.
During his first arrest in December 1996, Mr McConnell alleges he was intimidated, physically assaulted, abused, sworn at, shown a false confession and viewed graphic autopsy photographs.
