A file has been sent to the DPP in relation to the activities of a garda in connection with the McBrearty affair and the Carty inquiry into allegations of Garda corruption, Sligo Circuit Court was told yesterday.
A senior member of the Carty inquiry team, Garda Supt Tadhg Foley, was giving evidence in the case of Sligo man Mr Bernard Conlon, who is charged with making false statements to gardaí in relation to alleged threats to his life by two associates of the McBreartys.
Supt Foley said under cross-examination that this garda, who cannot be named, had not been charged with any offence, but he knew the garda had made "a lot of statements" to the Carty team and that a file was with the DPP in relation to him.
Supt Foley read to the court a 27-page statement he took from the accused, Mr Bernard Conlon, of Cartron Bay, Sligo, over four days in February 2000.
In the statement, Mr Conlon, who has pleaded not guilty to three counts of making false statements to gardaí on three dates in 1998, details how he agreed with another garda to make statements against members and associates of the McBrearty family.
Mr Conlon's statement describes receiving brown envelopes containing an average of £100 in cash from the second garda on a number of occasions as well as expenses cheques for court appearances.
"I opened the brown envelope and there was five £20 notes in the envelope. I thought it was good craic. I had plenty of money and I enjoyed myself. I was getting a buzz out of working with the guards, driving around in the patrol car and being called Det Garda Conlon," he says in his statement.
He also describes how the two gardaí arranged his court expenses. "I would have got at least £2,000 in all the cheques that I got," he says.
Mr Conlon's statement says both gardaí "told me they would get me £40 a day, a night overstay and travelling expenses". But his statement also says he never travelled to Letterkenny by bus, but that he "always travelled in an unmarked patrol car". The first cheque he received was for £390 and was given to him in Sligo Garda station.
At this time he was making frequent trips to Donegal to act as State witness against the McBreartys in licensing prosecutions. The court has heard that some 165 summonses against the McBreartys were subsequently withdrawn by the DPP.
Mr Conlon's statement describes how gardaí he was dealing with regularly referred to him as "Detective Garda Conlon".
He first met one of these gardaí on the street outside McBrearty's nightclub in Raphoe. This garda later told him he was investigating "the murder of Richie Barron" and that he was convinced "young Frank McBrearty was involved in it".
Mr Conlon says he agreed with this garda to be found on the McBrearty premises after hours and to give evidence in court that drink had been served.
Mr Conlon says this garda told him he believed a cousin of the McBreartys, Mr Marc McConnell, was involved in Mr Barron's death and that he wanted him "off the streets of Raphoe". Mr Conlon says he agreed to a plan to make allegations that Mr McConnell and another associate of the McBreartys, a Mr Peoples, called to his house in Sligo with a silver bullet and threatened his life.
Mr Conlon's statement says he made this "false and misleading statement" because he was under a lot of pressure. He had no problem giving descriptions because the garda had him "well briefed". He subsequently identified these two men to gardaí and they were both arrested.
Earlier counsel for Mr Conlon, Mr Colm Smyth, said that two gardaí for whom his client had been working would not be witnesses for the State "to take an oath and refute what Bernard Conlon has said in his statement". Mr Smyth added: "That speaks for itself."
The case continues today before Judge Carroll Moran.