A former garda has told the Morris tribunal that evidence that he probably wrote four of seven forged receipts for witness expenses for a petty criminal who was set up as a witness against the McBrearty family was "a complete and total fabrication".
John Nicholson (59) is the only garda successfully prosecuted as a result of the Silver Bullet report. He pleaded guilty in 2002 to uttering forged documents and received the Probation Act.
He was heavily criticised in the Silver Bullet report and refused costs because the chairman found his evidence was "tainted by cover-up, evasion and lies". The tribunal found that the Sligo garda probably forged four signatures with the name of Bernard Conlon's landlord on certificates of earnings used to claim witness expenses.
At the end of evidence to the inquiry, Mr Nicholson said there were some issues that he wanted to raise "in the interests of justice in this country". He said he was "very much blamed in the wrong" by the tribunal in relation to the "receipts" and for setting up Mr Conlon in the nightclub belonging to Frank McBrearty snr, something "which I had nothing to do with", he claimed. He said the main issue he wanted to discuss was "in relation to evidence that was given here and backed up by a handwriting expert, which is a complete and total fabrication". "What I am about to say will be proved in the very near future in a different forum," he said.
The chairman said that is was not his practice to discuss or debate his reports at the tribunal. "All I can say Mr Nicholson, as I have said before to Supt Lennon on another occasion, I would not make any findings that I had made were it not for the fact that I was absolutely sure that I was correct. I am going to stand by the ruling that I made. I will not discuss and debate previous modules."
The ex-garda's first involvement in the Barron investigation came in June 1997, when he arrested Mark McConnell for murder on the basis of new evidence, an alleged statement of admission from Mr McConnell's cousin, Frank McBrearty jnr.