A man who falsely claimed he had been threatened with death by a silver bullet was put it up to it by a garda sergeant, the Morris Tribunal heard today.
Bernard Conlon, 49, from Cartron Bay in Sligo, said he regretted making the false allegations, which led to the arrest of two men in 1998 and 1999.
“I was led and said by a certain person up the garden path. I feel sorry for the people who were injured and the guards that got involved in it.”
He said it was Sergeant John White, from the Donegal Division, who had prompted him to make the death threat allegations against two members of the extended McBrearty family, Mark McConnell and Michael Peoples.
“I seemed to have been under pressure from Sergeant White. He was anxious to get Mark McConnell and Michael Peoples and he was anxious to get the McBreartys. He was set on those people, he didn't like them.”
The invented events of July 20, 1998 involved two men with Northern accents visiting Mr Conlon at his home and threatening him over his involvement in a liquor licensing prosecution being taken against the McBreartys.
Mr Conlon said that as well as being pressurised by Sergeant White, he felt obliged to him because he had already received money in brown envelopes for his court appearances.
“The favour was to say they called to my home and that they produced a silver bullet to me and to say they seen me at the courthouse in Letterkenny and that they called in a state informer,” he said.
Mr Conlon received around £2,000 in witness expenses for making more than 30 court appearances at the behest of Gardai in connection with the prosecution against the McBreartys.
“I was blue in the face from travelling up and down in an unmarked patrol car. I got my bellyful of court cases,” he said.
However, he said he was well fed by the Gardai in the station canteen in Letterkenny and that on one occasion he was given a bottle of Paddy's whiskey by Sergeant White for being a 'star witness'.
Sergeant White, who is currently suspended from the force, was acquitted on charges of perverting the course of justice at Letterkenny Circuit Court last January.
He has totally denied the allegations made by Mr Conlon, who was convicted of making false statements against Mr McConnell and Mr Peoples.
PA