One of the suspects in the investigation into the death of cattle dealer Richie Barron was told that the dead man's son would "come to get" him, and that he would receive no Garda protection, the Morris tribunal was told yesterday.
The tribunal was hearing the continuing opening statement of the evidence from counsel for the tribunal, Mr Paul McDermott SC, who was outlining the arrests of 10 relatives of the McBrearty family in connection with Mr Barron's death on October 14th, 1996.
Mr Mark McConnell was a cousin of Mr Frank McBrearty jnr. Last week the tribunal heard that two informers had said they had seen two men coming through the car park attached to the nightclub owned by the McBrearty family in the early hours of the morning of October 14th, about the time Mr Barron died.
Mr McDermott told the tribunal that the information given by the informers - "information which you may find to have been deeply flawed" - appeared to be one of the main reasons for his arrest.
Mr McConnell was arrested on December 4th, 1996. He was questioned about his movements on the night of Mr Barron's death and described meeting him in a the Town and Country pub in Raphoe.
There was an altercation between the two men, but it was started by Mr Barron and did not appear to have been serious. No blows were exchanged, nevertheless, this row featured largely in the hypothesis put by gardaí to Mr McConnell and his wife concerning his involvement in Mr Barron's death. Mr McConnell was questioned for 12 hours.
Mr McConnell maintained he had left the Town and Country pub with his wife, Róisín, at about 1.15 a.m., ordered a take-away from a chip shop and visited McBrearty's nightclub briefly.
There they learned that Mr Barron had been knocked down, but Mr McBrearty told them he had not been killed. The couple then went home to collect some belongings and spent the night with their cousins and friends, the Brollys.
The next morning they visited other cousins, the Peoples, where they had breakfast. Mr McConnell said that during his interrogation he was shown post-mortem photographs of Mr Barron and forced to look at them.
He was shown a statement alleged to be from Mr Frank McBrearty jnr expressing remorse for killing Mr Barron and implicating him. He again denied any involvement. His solicitor who came to see him was denied access.
The allegations of mistreatment are denied by the gardaí who interviewed him. Mr McConnell was released at 8.20 p.m., 12 hours after his arrest.
According to the gardaí, a statement from Mr Frank McBrearty jnr admitting that he and Mr McConnell had killed Mr Barron was completed at 8.25 p.m., five minutes later, too late for its contents to be put to him.
This statement was the basis for the second arrest of Mr McConnell six months later. In order to justify arresting a person for a second time in connection with the same crime, a member of the Garda has to swear to a district justice that new evidence had come to light. The purported statement, which came just too late to be put to Mr McConnell during his first detention, was the basis for this new warrant.
During this second detention, according to Mr McConnell, the gardaí told him they would do a deal with him, that they knew he "had nothing to do with it" and "young Frank did the killing". They also told him, "Stephen Barron will be coming to get you and there will be no Garda protection available for you."
A formal complaint about these alleged threats and inducements was made by Mr McConnell's solicitor, Mr Cathal Quinn, who attended him in the Garda station.