Morris tribunal:A British handwriting expert has said that the contested signature on a false statement of admission to murder is that of Raphoe publican Frank McBrearty jnr.
Dr Robert Radley told the inquiry that the signature, which he compared to 20 sample signatures from Mr McBrearty, was not a forgery.
The document examiner also said that other signatures on statements made to gardaí by Mr McBrearty were genuine. "In my opinion Mr McBrearty wrote these, full stop," he said.
Mr McBrearty jnr has denied he ever made a confession to the murder of cattle dealer Mr Richie Barron, who died in a hit-and-run collision. The tribunal has found that Mr McBrearty was innocent of any involvement in Mr Barron's death.
Dr Radley also said there was limited positive evidence based on ESDA (electrostatic detection apparatus) testing, which suggested, on the balance of probabilities, that the signature of Det Garda John Fitzpatrick witnessing the statement of admission was made after the first page of the admission statement was written.
He could not say if the signatures of Mr McBrearty and Det Sgt John Melody were made before or after the first page was written, because of the lightness of the impressions.
The forensic scientist said it would be "enormously difficult" to accurately fit an exact number of words on a page without cramping and he found "nothing to support the proposition that it was written to fit the space".
"It would have to be very cleverly done if indeed one had to gauge how much writing had to be done to fit into the page to within one centimetre. I cannot say it cannot be done, what I say is that there is just no evidence to support that proposition."
Retired Det Supt Joseph Shelly told the tribunal he signed a warrant under section 29 of the Offences Against the State Act to search the home of Frank McBrearty snr following reports that he was intimidating witnesses.
Mr Shelly said he was aware of a report that a witness had been offered £500 by Mr McBrearty when he signed the warrant on December 3rd, 1996, although the witness did not make a statement until the following day. The witness, Noel McBride, later admitted the statement was untrue.
Mr Shelly said he could not understand how detectives who had interviewed Mr McBrearty snr after his arrest on December 5th, 1996, were not aware of the statement when they questioned him.
Tribunal barrister Anthony Barr said it appeared that the only detectives who were aware of the statement were Det Sgt Melody and and Det Garda Fitzpatrick, who were brought from Dublin to question Mr McBrearty snr on December 13th, 1996, following his release from hospital.