Morris tribunal: The Garda sergeant who arrested Frank McBrearty jnr a decade ago said that it was a bad decision to arrest him in front of his children, and had not been adequately considered in advance.
"I apologise for it. I apologise for the upset caused to him and his children and his family, and I think it was a bad decision," Sgt Joseph Hannigan told the Morris tribunal.
"I think it wasn't given adequate thought. I have no doubt but that it impacted both on him and his children and his family, and I apologise profusely for that."
Asked if there was a deliberate decision to cause distress to Mr McBrearty, he replied, "Absolutely not".
"My instructions were to set up a checkpoint on the Thorn Road and to effect the arrest there," he said. Mr McBrearty's house was under surveillance before the arrest, and the arrest party was made up of about 10 gardaí and four vehicles.
Sgt Hannigan said gardaí did not use abusive language to Mr McBrearty or his children during the arrest or later. "Those words and that type of words were not used at the scene or in the car. It was a formal arrest made properly," he said.
He said Mr McBrearty "used a lot of foul language" while the gardaí waited for the arrest to be processed at Letterkenny Garda station, and that he had "said he was a trained boxer and would take us one one by one".
The sergeant said that at one stage, Mr McBrearty "made a lunge" at Det Garda Patrick Cafferkey, and the detective "pinned" him into his seat and "kind of held him into it".
Tribunal senior counsel Anthony Barr asked Sgt Hannigan if he was "tailoring" his evidence in using the word "lunging". He said that in previous statements both the sergeant and Det Garda Cafferkey said that Mr McBrearty "jumped" out of the chair, and had not mentioned that he lunged at anybody.
"I'm certainly not tailoring my evidence," Sgt Hannigan said. "I didn't think that I made any major change in it here in the witness box today. If I created that impression, I apologise. I would believe what's in those statements is correct and it's my recollection at the time. I thought at the time that he jumped out of the seat at Det Garda Cafferkey, but what I can say for definite is that he did jump out of the seat in an aggressive fashion."
Retired detective garda PJ Keating said Mr McBrearty stood up from his seat, while Det Garda Patrick Cafferkey was nearby. The detective "put his hand on his shoulder and he was put back down," Mr Keating said. "There was no knee into his chest, certainly not."
Former garda Martin Leonard failed to appear to give evidence, and Mr Justice Frederick Morris made an order seeking High Court assistance in compelling him to attend.