Morris tribunal:A former Garda sergeant said he faced a campaign of intimidation as he followed orders to crack down on after hours drinking in Raphoe in an attempt to combat alcohol-related public order problems.
Former Sgt John White said he received telephone calls at his home telling him not to inspect the nightclub of Frank McBrearty Snr, and was threatened and assaulted by customers at the country and western venue.
Mr McBrearty claims his nightclub was targeted and he and his family were the subjects of a campaign of Garda harassment.
"I have worked extensively in Dublin. In all the time I was in Dublin, and I dealt with major criminals in Dublin and a lot of very bad people in Dublin, and nobody ever contacted my home," Mr White said.
"Nobody every brought the problems back to my house, never . . . you don't go to a policeman's house, you don't touch their family. You don't take it out on their family. But that code was broken in Donegal for the first time ever in my career."
Mr White described how on one occasion, the phone rang as he arrived home from work at 5am. "I answered and the voice said: 'You're at home you f****r. Remember you can't mind your kids if you're in Raphoe'. The line was then disconnected," he said.
Mr White said he did not recognise the caller's voice.
The former sergeant said a few weeks later - while he was in the nightclub - as he passed a man who was dancing with a woman, "as I walked past, he just caught the woman and just hurled her straight at me". Mr White then spoke to the woman but "was struck twice then in the back, then in the kidneys by this man".
The man was later arrested, and when he was searched, gardaí found £35 in used notes and "£300 in crisp new notes".
The man claimed he worked as a window cleaner and received the money in payment from customers in Killybegs.
"I suspect that he had been paid to carry out the assault on me that night," Mr White said.