A senior garda today denied ever hearing a colleague threaten a suspect during a murder inquiry in Co Donegal.
Detective Garda Patrick Flynn told the Morris Tribunal he would have remembered if Michael Peoples was verbally abused in the back of a patrol car.
He admitted that Det Insp Michael Keane initially arrested the suspect for the murder of cattle dealer Richie Barron on December 4 th, 1996, adding he was due to be questioned for being an accessory.
Gardaí accused Mr Peoples of assisting their two prime suspects - Frank McBrearty Jnr and Mark McConnell - by helping them wash their clothes after the killing. At the time he was a doorman at a nightclub owned by the McBreartys.
Investigating officers also thought it suspicious that a phone call was made from Mr Peoples' house to the hospital enquiring about Mr Barron's condition on the night he died. The call had been made by Mr Peoples' mother-in-law, who was a distant relative of the deceased.
The tribunal has since found that Mr Barron, a cattle dealer from Raphoe, was a hit-and-run victim. No-one has ever been charged with his death.
Det Garda Flynn said a false statement alleged three people were seen walking down a car park soon after Mr Barron died, and some officers may have believed one of the three was Mr Peoples.
When questioned if he recalled Mr Peoples being called a murdering b*****d in the garda car following his arrest, he replied: "Certainly not".
"If I had heard that it would have stuck in my memory. I'm telling the truth as I remember it."
Mr Peoples previously told the tribunal that during his 12-hour detention at Lifford Garda station he was first interviewed amicably by two gardaí, but the atmosphere changed in the second interview conducted by Det Insp Michael Keane and Garda Philip Collins.
They continuously repeated: "You're a lying, murdering b*****d", he claimed.
Mr Peoples said he was not physically assaulted at all but he was terrified and felt threatened.
He was arrested again on May 6, 1999, and interrogated for two days following fabricated statements made by Bernard Conlon falsely identifying him as one of two men who threatened him with a silver bullet if he gave evidence in a licensing case against the McBreartys.
The Morris Tribunal is currently investigating claims some 12 people arrested and detained in connection with the death were threatened and abused during garda interviews.
PA