A Co Donegal man was yesterday found not guilty on charges that he wasted Garda time and made false statements during the investigations which followed the killing of Mr Richie Barron, a Raphoe cattle dealer, in October, 1996.
Mr Roderick Donnelly (27), of Ballylennon, St Johnston, had pleaded not guilty on both counts.
His trial at Letterkenny Circuit Court lasted two days, after which the jury of six men and six women took just over 40 minutes to reach a verdict of not guilty.
Mr Donnelly had been charged with knowingly making false statements to Det Garda Pat Flynn in relation to an act of bodily harm committed by another person on January 20th 1997 at Lifford Garda station.
He was also charged with wasting Garda time by tending to show that he had information material to Garda inquiries on January 20th at Lifford Garda station.
During the first day of evidence, the court heard how, on January 20th 1997, the defendant had made a statement to Det Garda Flynn claiming that on the night of Richie Barron's death he had seen a Raphoe man, Mr Mark McConnell, and two women walking up the street from the Diamond direction. Mr Donnelly had told his friend Mr Kieran Roulston that Mr McConnell looked scared and looked like he had been fighting.
However, on Wednesday afternoon, Judge Matthew Deery heard how two statements taken from the accused man by Carty inquiry team members Det Garda Thomas Flynn and Det Garda Hugh Moloney, on March 9th and 10th, 2000, revealed that the defendant claimed he had been "brainwashed" into making his original statements in January 1997.
He had been brainwashed by a man who could not be named in court for legal reasons but who was described as being "very friendly" with gardaí in Raphoe.
In his new statement, Mr Donnelly admitted having his attention drawn to Mr McConnell on the night Mr Barron died because he was accompanied by two women outside Frankie's night-club. He also thought he had a "drop of drink" taken.
The court heard how the Carty inquiry team members had interviewed the defendant for more than 7½ hours over two days in an unmarked Garda car outside his house in St Johnston.
During his statement to the jury on Thursday, Mr Colm Smyth SC, for the defence, said that the two Carty inquiry detectives had made his client try to remember something which had happened three years previously. The fact that the statements were taken in a Garda car during 7½ hours of "interrogation" was "nothing short of disgraceful".
Mr Smyth said there was not one shred of evidence to support the case for wasting Garda time.