A former superintendent has said he did not obtain a statement from a garda about a hoax extortion phone call made to a suspect in the investigation into Richie Barron's death because the officer had already told him he knew nothing about the call.
The call was made from the home of John O'Dowd, a Raphoe garda, in November 1996. Last year, Mr O'Dowd told the Morris tribunal he was present when his informer, William Doherty, made the call.
"I asked him for an explanation," former Letterkenny garda superintendent Kevin Lennon said. "He denied the phone call."
"Why can't he put it in a statement? Why can't you ask him to put it in a statement?" asked tribunal senior council Paul McDermott.
"Well, I didn't ask him. I sent him to the people who were investigating," said Mr Lennon.
Mr Lennon said nothing more could be done about the allegations from private investigator Billy Flynn, who had obtained an unofficial copy of the garda's phone records, until official Eircom records were obtained.
Detectives had confirmed Mr Flynn's allegation that other calls came from the home of Mr Doherty when Mr Doherty's father handed an itemised bill to gardaí, but they had no official record of calls from Mr O'Dowd's phone.
Mr Lennon also said confidentiality requirements meant he did not tell other detectives that Mr Doherty was an informer.
He said he did not advise Det Sgt John White to use a tape recorder when he interviewed Mr Doherty after the informer was arrested and questioned by detectives, but he learned about it later.
Last week, the sergeant said the superintendent told him to record the conversation in case Mr Doherty "made vindictive complaints".
"I was aware that he was known as a person who would tape, yes," Mr Lennon said of Det Sgt White.
"I think that was generally known in the Garda, that he was a person who would tape."