Morris tribunal:A husband and wife wrongly arrested for a murder that never happened have been questioned at the Morris tribunal about allegations relating to Garda corruption contained in an anonymous document brought to the attention of two TDs in June 2000.
Róisín McConnell told the tribunal she travelled to Dublin with her husband Mark on March 7th, 2000, to meet Fine Gael justice spokesman Jim Higgins, who raised their case in the Dáil.
Mr McConnell was arrested for the murder of cattle dealer Richie Barron in 1996 and Ms McConnell was arrested as an accessory. The tribunal has found that Mr Barron died as a result of a hit-and-run.
Ms McConnell said she remembered very little of the meeting in the home of private detective Billy Flynn on the way home. "I just remember sitting in Billy Flynn's house, I think Big Frank [ McBrearty snr] was going down to collect stuff. She said Mr Flynn walked around as he spoke and "seemed to be talking in riddles."
Mr McConnell said the meeting was the first time Mr Flynn met former garda PJ Togher, who worked for Mr McBrearty snr.
Mr McConnell said he did not feel at the time that the Carty inquiry into Garda corruption in Co Donegal was doing a good job and their names still had not been cleared after a year.
"Billy Flynn went over the entire history of his investigation in Donegal and the good work he had done up there," he said. "PJ Togher didn't say much."
In a memo he made later to the Carty inquiry, Mr Flynn said that during the meeting, Mr Togher spoke of subjects similar to those in a document sent to Mr Higgins.
"What is being suggested to me is that this would indicate that PJ Togher might have been the author of the document we are calling the anonymous allegations," tribunal chairman Mr Justice Frederick Morris said. "Can you remember anything that he might have said that would support that point of view or can you tell me for instance that he wasn't a ringleader in the conversation?"
"He most definitely wasn't a ringleader in the conversation," Mr McConnell said. "He gave me the impression that he didn't really want to be there."