A witness has been warned he faced severe penalties if he deliberately obstructed the inquiry by the Morris Tribunal into the 1996 death of Raphoe cattle dealer Mr Richie Barron and the subsequent Garda murder investigation. Gerard Cunningham reports.
The warning came after Mr Paul "Gazza" Gallagher said that he was told by Det Garda Thomas Kilcoyne and Det Garda Joseph Foley a statement he made in Northern Ireland in 1998 "doesn't count because it's made here" outside Garda jurisdiction. He said the gardaí made up the statement, and he signed it just to get away.
However, Mr Gallagher (28), could not say if the accusations against Mr Frank McBrearty in the statement were true, and was warned by Mr Justice Frederick Morris that the tribunal had statutory powers it could call upon if he failed to co-operate. Mr Morris also asked Mr Gallagher's legal counsel to explain this to him overnight.
"I'd be grateful if you'd explain to him that we're not here to play games," the judge said at the close of yesterday's hearings. "We expect him to use the intelligence he obviously has to answer the questions."
"Well, I'll be up the road to Letterkenny," Mr Gallagher said.
Earlier Mr Gallagher said he blamed Mr McBrearty for the murder of Mr Barron because otherwise he felt he would be blamed himself for the hit and run. He said when he was interviewed in Mountjoy prison in November 1996, a detective told him either Mr McBrearty would take the blame, or he would.
Mr Gallagher was in prison awaiting trial for a series of burglaries in Donegal a month earlier when he was questioned by Det Sgt Sylvie Henry. The detective told him that Mr McBrearty was blaming him for a hit and run, so he blamed Mr McBrearty instead.
Mr Gallagher had been arrested for a series of burglaries in Donegal, including the theft of about £1,500 in coins from slot machines in a Ballybofey café. After he was arrested, Mr Gallagher told gardaí he was given a billhook to dispose of, and was paid £500 by Frank McBrearty jnr, who told him to burn his Renault car. When he went to his car, it was turned around in the opposite direction to that which he had left it in.
"It's lies, it is all lies," he said. His car had not been moved that night, and the billhook, which was found later by gardaí, was one he himself had stolen, he said. He had burned his car himself because it "was only scrap."