A Garda detective said yesterday he never bribed, flattered, coaxed or pressurised Bernard Conlon into making false statements to set up the McBreartys.
Det Sgt John White was being cross-examined by Mr Conlon's counsel, Des Dockery.
He was questioned about Mr Conlon's allegation that the detective told him to make up a story that two men called to his house in Sligo and threatened him with a silver bullet. He later falsely identified Mark McConnell and Michael Peoples, two members of the McBrearty family.
"I emphatically did not set up Mr McConnell and Mr Peoples. That man sitting there beside you did it," Sgt White said, indicating Mr Conlon.
Mr Dockery said he had a huge motive but Mr Conlon had none.
Sgt White said:"I had no motive to set those men up."
Mr Dockery put it to him that he had pressurised and coaxed Mr Conlon into making up the silver bullet story and identifying the two men.
"I never bribed him, I never flattered him, I did not coax him or pressurise him," Sgt White said.
The detective said Mr Conlon had given evidence that he was pressurised on October 1st, 1998, in relation to the identification of Mr McConnell in Letterkenny.
He said Insp Gerard Connolly had given evidence that Mr Conlon was quite happy to be there when Mr McConnell was arrested and went across the road with Insp Connolly to confront Mr McConnell.
"That's not the demeanour of a man who was pressurised, it was the demeanour of a man who was enjoying himself, chairman, and he was into the middle of all this and he loved it," Sgt White said.
Earlier, the chairman said a meeting between two Sligo gardaí and Sgt White in a Donegal car-park was presented like something out of a Le Carre novel. Sgt White described a meeting he had with two Sligo gardaí as "suspicious".
It was on September 22nd, 1999, the night before Insp Connolly, then a detective sergeant, and Det Garda John McHale were due to attend a licensing court case in Letterkenny against the McBreartys in which Mr Conlon was a State witness. There was a query over the list of Mr Conlon's previous convictions.
Sgt White said he was at home in Ballybofey digging the garden when Insp Connolly rang him and told him to go out and ring him from a call box. Insp Connolly told him to go to Donegal town to a car-park near the Garda station and meet him there.
When he got to the car-park it was dark. He rang Insp Connolly to tell him he had arrived and the inspector said they were behind him and flashed the car lights. Sgt White said the two gardaí were in the front and he got in the back.
"There was something going on between the two men which I was excluded from. There was no eye contact with me," he said.
The two Sligo gardaí have said it was not a secret meeting.