Morris Tribunal: A refusal by the senior garda officer in Donegal to allow an exhumation of the remains of Raphoe cattle-dealer Mr Richie Barron "effectively tied my hands", said Supt Kevin Lennon in his closing submission.
He said allegations were made against him at the tribunal because of reports he had written to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), and Chief Supt Denis Fitzpatrick criticising the investigation into Ritchie Barron's death.
"It was always my case that this investigation into me resulted because of my findings into the death of Richard Barron.
"That investigation I inherited as I was not based in Letterkenny at the time of the original investigation. My report of 2nd March, 1998, to the DPP is a true and accurate reflection of the facts.
"My report of 6th March, 1998, titled to C.S. Fitzpatrick reflects my findings and was a genuine endeavour by me to have the matter revisited.
"The direction of Chief Supt Fitzpatrick to me to stop the exhumation application to the minister effectively tied my hands in reaching a successful conclusion to the entire investigation."
Following an exhumation in 2001, British and Irish pathologists gave evidence that Mr Barron most likely died as a result of a hit-and-run road accident. In the months following Mr Barron's death, members of the extended McBrearty family became suspects in a murder investigation, and claim they were harassed by local gardaí.
In the current module, the tribunal investigated allegations that Det Garda Noel McMahon and Supt Kevin Lennon prepared explosives with Ms Adrienne McGlinchey that were later used in bogus Garda arms finds in Co Donegal during the 1990s. Both deny the accusations, and Ms McGlinchey has insisted she was neither an informer nor a member of the IRA.
Supt Lennon, representing himself, said the Garda Commissioner's legal team had "Solomon-like" divided evidence about Ms McGlinchey's activities as an informer into two sections, claiming that she was a credible informer before her involvement with him, but not after he came on the scene.
He said different gardaí had contradicted each other in their evidence, so much so that the commissioner's legal team "found it necessary to concelebrate their evidence".
Three members of the commissioner's legal team addressed the tribunal over the course of the commissioner's submission.
"If the Carty team, with all their resources, found her difficult to deal with, that difficulty extended also to me." Ms McGlinchey signed a note for a Supt Coll stating everything she told the gardaí was lies, which was produced in the Court of Criminal Appeal during the miscarriage of justice appeal of Donegal nightclub owner Mr Frank Shortt.
This note was not produced to the tribunal, he said.
"Members of the force who are the subject of serious allegations in the Barron modules conducted investigations into my alleged misconduct," Supt Lennon said. "The said members were subordinate to me for many years." He said this created "an apprehension of bias".