A detective sergeant said yesterday he had hoped two sisters who complained about mistreatment while in custody would not come to the tribunal.
Det Sgt John White told the chairman he had hoped the modules concerning allegations by Róisín McConnell and Katrina Brolly of mistreatment and psychological abuse would not go ahead.
He apologised yesterday to the two women for the hurt, pain and trauma caused to them by the interviews.
He was being asked about his change of evidence to the tribunal last weekend. Previously he had denied all allegations of mistreatment. In his new statement he admitted the two women were mistreated and abused during interviews in Letterkenny Garda station in 1996 in connection with the death of cattle-dealer Richie Barron.
His changed evidence came after a new statement from Det Garda John Dooley who had initially denied all the allegations of mistreatment made by the women. Last week, the tribunal read out the new evidence from Det Garda Dooley in which he admits the women were abused.
Det Sgt White said he remembered postmortem photographs of Mr Barron being shown, using abusive language, allegations of infidelity being made, a chair being roughly skidded across the room and lights being switched on and off.
He said he did not see Ms Brolly's hair being pulled by Garda Joan Gallagher, as alleged by Ms Brolly and Det Garda Dooley, but said he had no reason to doubt Det Garda Dooley's word on it. Garda Gallagher has denied the allegations.
Tribunal counsel Paul McDermott SC asked Det Sgt White if he would have continued to deny the allegations, as he had for nine years, if Det Garda Dooley had not made his new statement.
Det Sgt White said he had not thought about this module as he had been involved in so many others, but he would not have committed perjury.
"To be honest, Mr Chairman, I was hoping they [ Ms Brolly and Ms McConnell] wouldn't come in," he said. Mr McDermott said there was not a scintilla of evidence to suggest that Det Sgt White was going to tell the truth before last Saturday.
While giving evidence yesterday, Det Sgt White said: "I want to apologise to the two ladies, Mrs Róisín McConnell and Mrs Katrina Brolly, over the pain and hurt or trauma that they were caused by the interviews," he said. He said he had meant to say it previously but his head was in a fog.
Det Sgt White said when the complaints about mistreatment were made officially, he met Det Garda Dooley and they discussed it and came to a decision that they would not admit to wrongdoing.
One reason for this was that some of the serious allegations made were not true, another was self-preservation and also that the investigation would not come to a hearing, he said. Another was that he didn't want to go against "the culture that was there to deny allegations where possible".
He said he had never threatened to take Ms Brolly's children away. It was not a threat, it was a fact. If she was convicted, she would go to prison.
Asked what the apology was for, he replied: "The apology is about the photos being shown to Mrs Brolly and the abusive language used to her."
If she was upset about what was said about her children, he apologised for that.