Garda says report written against background of fear

A Donegal garda told the Morris tribunal yesterday that she wrote a report outlining her concerns about the investigation into…

A Donegal garda told the Morris tribunal yesterday that she wrote a report outlining her concerns about the investigation into the death of cattle dealer Richie Barron "against a background of fear for having come forward to tell the truth".

Garda Tina Fowley wrote the report to Chief Supt Denis Fitzpatrick after she met members of the Carty team in 1999.

She said that Chief Supt Fitzpatrick told her "that he didn't want to see me go down with Kevin Lennon because he was gone bye-bye out of the job".

"There was an inherent threat in the conversation," a clearly distraught Garda Fowley said.

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Garda Fowley said that as a result, she was reluctant to go into details in her report to the chief superintendent, made after he visited her in her home.

Garda Fowley says that in September 1997, she discovered discrepancies in two versions of a record of an interview with Ms Róisín McConnell, one of 12 people wrongly arrested during the Barron investigation.

Last week, Garda John Harkin told the tribunal that he had rewritten his interview notes, removing some questions that were asked by Insp John McGinley, and then submitted the forged notes to the Barron investigation team.

However, he said he thought he had not done this until after Garda Fowley was assigned to other duties.

Garda Fowley also said that there was an error in a statement she made to the Carty team, where the addition of the word "not" reversed the meaning of what she had told Det Sgt George Kyne.

"The word 'not' negatised everything I said to Det Sgt Kyne and everything Det Sgt Kyne put to Garda Harkin," she said.

Garda Fowley was cross-examined by Conor Connelly, the solicitor representing Garda Harkin.

Mr Connelly said that Garda Fowley could not have seen discrepancies in a note from his client Garda Harkin, because the discrepancies did not arise until January 1998.

This was four months after Garda Fowley finished working on the case.