A wrongly arrested suspect in a botched murder investigation today blamed a garda officer for the victim's death.
A confrontational Frank McBrearty Jnr made a dramatic u-turn by turning up late to give evidence to the Morris Tribunal, having vowed never to return to the hearings.
He was arrested, along with his cousin Mark McConnell on December 4th, 1996, for the murder of Donegal cattle dealer Richie Barron. The dead man was later found to have been a victim of a hit-and-run collision.
The tribunal was adjourned twice this morning, before Mr McBrearty Jnr turned up, and then again when he demanded the removal of two garda officers he said were staring at him.
He initially refused to take the witness stand, accusing the tribunal's summons officer Tony McDonald of telling lies about serving notice on him to appear.
When Justice Frederick Morris refused to call Mr McDonald back before the hearing, Mr McBrearty Jnr eventually took the stand under protest.
He began quoting from the Constitution, and claimed his rights were being breached as he was not afforded legal representation. "I will be making a complaint to the Oireachtas on your conduct towards our family," he told Justice Morris.
Repeatedly shouting over both the tribunal's chairman and barrister Paul McDermott SC, he again refused to proceed with evidence until two garda officers present in the room were removed.
"I don't feel comfortable and I'll bring in psychiatric evidence to prove why. I have a problem, they are staring at me," he said. After another brief adjournment, a lawyer for both officers agreed they would remove themselves.
Mr McBrearty told the tribunal he was detained by around 25 gardai at a road checkpoint while taking his children to school on the morning of his arrest.
He said his children and himself were physically and mentally abused by the garda officers.
"The guards around the car started shouting 'get the murdering bastard handcuffed', in the presence of my children," he said.
"When Sergeant (Joseph) Hannigan saw I wasn't getting provoked he shouted into the car: 'Do you know you're Daddy is a murderer?'. At this stage my children were hysterical."
Mr McBrearty Jnr claimed a garda officer, present at the tribunal, killed Mr Barron in the hit-and-run collision.
PA