Former superintendent insists he was set up

A former Donegal garda superintendent has said he still believes other senior officers in the Donegal division are trying to "…

A former Donegal garda superintendent has said he still believes other senior officers in the Donegal division are trying to "do him down" for the investigation into the death of Raphoe cattle dealer Richie Barron.

Kevin Lennon told the tribunal he believed other officers in the division attempted to scapegoat him by drawing a connection between him and Noel McBride, after Mr McBride withdrew allegations against members of the McBrearty family.

Allegations of Garda harassment by the McBrearty family led to the establishment of an internal Garda inquiry and eventually to the Morris tribunal.

When Mr McBride withdrew his allegations against the McBrearty family in September 1997, he said Garda informer William Doherty put him up to making the statements. Mr Lennon had previously dealt with Mr Doherty in connection with subversive intelligence and said that detectives who subsequently arrested and questioned the informer tried to draw a connection between him, Mr Doherty and Mr McBride.

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Detectives arrested Mr Doherty on September 20th, 1997, and brought him to Milford Garda station for questioning. A notebook belonging to Mr Doherty's Garda handler, John O'Dowd, was found in his bedroom when he was arrested.

Mr Doherty admitted in his evidence to the tribunal that he had stolen the notebook from Mr O'Dowd.

But after his arrest in 1997 he had told Mr O'Dowd that the notebook was planted.

Mr Lennon said he believed that other officers were "out to do him down". "I still believe it. And they're still at it," Mr Lennon told senior counsel Tom Creed, representing Mr O'Dowd.

Mr Lennon said he did not relay the suspicion that the notebook had been planted in Mr Doherty's bedroom when he met Donegal State solicitor Ciarán MacLochlainn, or later when he met David Lombard from the office of the DPP. But he said he told Mr MacLochlainn: "They were trying to set me up."