Morris tribunal:A former garda told the Morris tribunal it was "the craziest thing he ever saw" when a Donegal publican banged his head against a wall while in Garda custody a decade ago.
John O'Dowd arrested Frank McBrearty jnr on suspicion of assault on February 4th, 1997, two months after he was arrested on suspicion of the murder of cattle dealer Richie Barron.
Mr McBrearty was later acquitted of assault in the Circuit Court, and the tribunal has found he was innocent in the death of Mr Barron, a hit-and-run victim.
Mr O'Dowd said that Sgt John White taped the arrest of Mr McBrearty in case he later made complaints against gardaí.
He said that later in the day Mr McBrearty told him: "I'm going to bang my head against that wall, and I'm going to blame you."
"Up your man jumps, over to the wall, bang!" he said. "It was the craziest thing I ever saw in my life."
Mr O'Dowd said he opened the door and another garda was there, and he showed him Mr McBrearty banging his head.
The tribunal previously heard from solicitor James Sweeney, who said Mr McBrearty had threatened to harm himself unless he was released. The solicitor said he told gardaí his client was in no fit state to be interviewed.
Sgt John O'Toole said Mr McBrearty was mistaken in saying that he was present during his earlier arrest on the morning of December 4th, 1996. Nor, he said, had he driven the car in which Mr McBrearty was taken to Letterkenny Garda station.
The sergeant said he did not hear any noise or shouting while Mr McBrearty was in Garda custody, but said the conference room where he was based was a distance from the interview rooms in the station. He was "quite surprised, because it seemed to be against the run of play as it were", when he heard Mr McBrearty made a statement.
Mr McBrearty denies he made any statement of admission to Det Garda John Fitzpatrick and Det Sgt John Melody, who say he made a voluntary statement.
"I don't believe you could get Frank McBrearty to sign anything if he didn't want to do it," Mr Fitzpatrick told the tribunal.
Mr Fitzpatrick said Mr McBrearty was not threatened or abused in Garda custody, or told he was "going down" for 20 years, or shown postmortem photographs of Mr Barron, nor was he shown a bogus confession purported to be from his cousin, Mark McConnell, as he alleged in a letter from his solicitor a week after his arrest.
Mr Fitzpatrick gave evidence in closed session.