Morris tribunal:Donegal publican Frank McBrearty snr has told the Morris tribunal that he did not tell a Garda sergeant he wanted to continue being questioned in order to clear his name.
This followed his release from hospital when he was arrested on suspicion of intimidating witnesses during the murder investigation after the hit-and-run death of cattle dealer Richie Barron
Retired superintendent John McGinley, an inspector at the time, told the tribunal that Det Sgt Sylvie Henry passed on the information at a meeting at which he brought to the attention of senior officers a letter from Mr McBrearty snr's consultant, saying it "would not be in his best interests to be interrogated".
"I never said that," Mr McBrearty snr said. "That's Sgt Henry's statement. That's nothing to do with me."
Mr McBrearty also said he was given a blank piece of paper to sign by Insp McGinley later the same evening, December 12th, 1996. Mr McGinley said this was a lie, that neither he nor his colleague Supt John Fitzgerald did what Mr McBrearty said.
Mr McBrearty said it was on record that the witness had perjured himself at the tribunal.
Mr McGinley said that the morning after the alleged incident, Mr McBrearty had met his solicitor, James O'Donnell, and made no complaint about any incident involving a blank piece of paper.
He said the decision to keep Mr McBrearty in custody when he and other senior officers had been shown the letter from consultant physician Brian Callaghan was "a judgment call." He said he thought the letter was "ambiguous" and "left question marks".
Mr McBrearty was originally arrested on December 5th, 1996, and admitted to hospital later that evening with suspected heart attack symptoms.
He was released on December 12th, but was readmitted the next day. He was eventually released from Garda custody on December 19th, 14 days after his arrest.
Mr McGinley said it was unfair that allegations were made against "decent hard-working policemen" in the detective branch in Co Donegal.
"I worked for those fellows for eight or 10 years, there was never a complaint made against any of them," he said.