Analysis: The use of informants comes up again in the section of the Morris tribunal dealing with the investigation of the death of Richie Barron, writes Carol Coulter, Legal Affairs Correspondent
The death of cattle-dealer Richie Barron, and the subsequent arrest of members of the McBrearty family from Raphoe in connection with it, were the central events leading to the Morris tribunal. On Tuesday evening, counsel for the tribunal, Mr Peter Charleton SC, began his detailed examination of these events.
There are a number of strands. First of all, there is the investigation into the death itself, and how it turned from an apparent hit-and-run accident into a murder investigation.
Secondly, there is the question of the behaviour of two members of the Garda on the night he died.
Thirdly, the question arises as to how Frank McBrearty jnr and his cousin Mark McConnell came to be the chief suspects, and what happened to them as a result.
Fourthly, there is the question of the use of informers by members of the gardaí, how information came to be obtained from them, and how reliable it was.
Already the investigation of the death of Mr Barron has been the subject of sustained criticism in a confidential report from within the Garda Síochána itself. Among these criticisms are the fact that 56 hours were allowed to elapse before the scene was preserved, the overlooking of a number of houses close to the scene in the house-to-house questioning, and the failure to call in the State Pathologist following the death.
It is not yet clear whether these failures - and there were many more, some of a very serious nature - were connected to the movements of the garda on duty in Raphoe that night, Garda Patrick Mulligan, and that of his colleague, Garda John O'Dowd, who was off duty, but was with him. They were not around when the ambulance came to the scene of Mr Barron's death, and did not arrive until many hours later.
According to Garda O'Dowd, he took Garda Mulligan for a drive in his private car in the early hours of the morning of Mr Barron's death. Another witness reports being told by Garda O'Dowd about a hit-and-run accident in Raphoe around the time of Mr Barron's death. Another witness, a Garda, reported seeing the two gardaí, including the one meant to be on duty in Raphoe, in a pub in Lifford at about midnight that night. In relation to this, the local Garda Representative Association representative told the Carty inquiry, "we are conceding the pub issue in full".
We have already heard that Ms Adrienne McGlinchey claimed that she was told by Garda Noel McMahon that two gardaí killed Ritchie Barron. However, this claim has not been substantiated.
All these elements will undoubtedly be examined in detail when the inquiry comes to take evidence. In any event, Garda O'Dowd came to play a major part in the investigation of the death of the cattle-dealer, and in particular he was centrally involved in the role of informers in that investigation.
Suspicion fell quickly on Mark McConnell and Frank McBrearty jnr in relation to the death. The reason for this seems, on the face of it, to be flimsy. Mr Barron had an altercation with Mark McConnell in a pub earlier in the evening. However, Mr Barron instigated it, Mark McConnell appears not to have taken it seriously, and no blows were exchanged.
Mr McConnell and Mr McBrearty were reported to have been seen leaving the car-park attached to the McBrearty night-club in the early hours of the Monday morning, around the reported time of the death. The back of the car-park led through fields that led to the road where Mr Barron died.
Mr Charleton commented that there was nothing suspicious about people being in the vicinity of the car-park attached to their own business, especially as Mr McBrearty helped out there. Nonetheless, their presence there, as reported by informants, was held to be suspicious.
Two such informants have been identified. One was a petty criminal called Paul "Gazza" Gallagher, who was ejected from the nightclub that night. He told gardaí that Mr McBrearty had put a billhook (allegedly used in the murder) in his car. He later told the Carty inquiry that he had been told by gardaí he was being blamed for the death of Mr Barron, and that he should "get his story right" and "stitch Frankie up" instead.
The other informant was Noel McBride, who gave the gardaí a detailed account of seeing the two suspected young men in the car-park. However, it later emerged that he was not in Raphoe that night.
Senior Garda officers were told that informants had told local gardaí, notably Garda O'Dowd, that the McBreartys had killed Mr Barron, and this appears to be the reason that a murder investigation was launched. However, it has since emerged that these purported informants did not even make such statements until after the investigation was well under way.