Two Donegal men who are central to the Morris tribunal yesterday welcomed the fact that the Garda Commissioner has officially confirmed they are no longer officially regarded as suspects in the 1996 death of Raphoe cattle dealer Mr Richie Barron.
In a personally signed letter to cousins Mr Frank McBrearty jnr and Mr Mark McConnell, Mr Noel Conroy confirmed that entries made to the PULSE computer system in 1999 from Garda information compiled in 1997 listing the pair as suspects had been removed.
"It's the first time it's been acknowledged we're not suspects," said Mr McBrearty.
"It's a great day, I feel a great relief. Hopefully this will finally show the people of Donegal we are finally cleared," said Mr McConnell.
"A user of the system doing a search against your name will not be brought to the Richard Barron case," the letters sent to the two men said.
"That information was superseded by the redesignation of the offence as 'Dangerous Driving Causing Death' in respect of which you are NOT listed as a suspect." The death of Mr Barron was redesignated on February 13th, 2002, a month before the Oireachtas established the Morris tribunal into Garda corruption in Donegal.
References to allegations concerning Mr Edward Moss and Mr Bernard Conlon, which are the subject of other modules of the tribunal, have also been removed from the Garda system, the Commissioner confirmed.
Meanwhile, Mr McConnell told yesterday's session that rumours that Mr Barron was murdered spread because of Garda inquiries during the official investigation. He was cross-examining Supt John McGinley, one of the senior officers who led the investigation in its first months.
"Was it not true most of the rumours were created by the gardaí?" he asked. "Nearly every statement you took, you were asking what type of clothes was I wearing, was I wet?"
"People were coming back to me telling me this. This is the reason rumours were spreading like wildfire," he said.
"There were a lot of statements taken where there was no mention of Mr McConnell," the superintendent said." But he said there was an altercation between Mr McConnell and Mr Barron, and so "it was only fair" that they would ask about him.
But Mr McConnell insisted the rumours were spread by what the gardaí were asking witnesses, and by "informers".