A witness was asked to make two false statements implicating members of the McBrearty family while in Garda custody, the Morris Tribunal was told.
Mr Sean Crossan, an electrician who worked as a doorman at the McBreartys' nightclub in Donegal, was arrested on December 11th, 1996.
He said that during his detention he was asked to make two false statements, that Mr Frank McBrearty snr gave him £150 to make an earlier statement to gardaí, and that he saw Mr Frank McBrearty jnr and Mr Mark McConnell coming down the car park outside Frankie's nightclub "covered in blood". He was also asked to sign them, Mr Crossan said.
The tribunal is investigating the death of Raphoe cattle dealer Mr Richie Barron on October 14th, 1996.
At 12.30 a.m. that night, Mr Frank McBrearty snr asked Mr Crossan to see to some girls who were ill in the car- park. One of the girls asked Mr Crossan to get a tissue. When he did this, Mr Frank McBrearty snr told him he had ejected someone from the nightclub. He asked Mr Crossan to check in case the person ejected had broken some windows. As he did this, he saw Garda Pádraig Mulligan on the street, at about 12.35 a.m.
Later, after Mr Crossan returned to the two girls, he saw three young men coming down the car-park. When he went to make a statement on October 18th about another matter, Sgt Joseph Hannigan asked him to make a statement about the events of October 13th/14th.
Mr Crossan said this statement was not correct. It said he saw no one when he went to check the windows, but he had told the sergeant he saw Garda Mulligan. At about 4.30 a.m. on November 17th, Mr Crossan met Sgt Hannigan on patrol. He told the sergeant he wanted to add to his statement. In this second statement, he told the gardaí about the three young men he had met coming down from the car- park. In December 1996, Mr Crossan met Sgt Hannigan and a superintendent from Letterkenny. The sergeant told him "those two statements are all lies".
Mr Crossan said he was told to change his statement. Mr Crossan also met Sgt John White, who said: "Get them statements changed before the weekend."
It was put to Mr Crossan that he was not telling the truth to the tribunal. "I'm under oath and I don't lie, I have more respect for the Bible than that," he replied.
Earlier, Mr Leonard Toye was asked by Mr Eamonn Giblin SC, for the McBrearty family, if any members of Mr Toye's family had received unpleasant telephone calls. Mr Toye said that his sister-in-law, Colleen Toye, had received calls before October 1999. He did not know who the calls were from.