Outburst leads to early adjournment

Morris Tribunal: The tribunal adjourned 10 minutes early yesterday after the chairman asked the mother of a Donegal publican…

Morris Tribunal: The tribunal adjourned 10 minutes early yesterday after the chairman asked the mother of a Donegal publican to tell her son to control himself.

Mr Frank McBrearty jnr, who became a suspect during the investigation into the death of cattle dealer Mr Richie Barron in 1996, represents himself before the tribunal, and has been cross-examining Supt Joseph Shelly about the Garda investigation.

Yesterday Mr McBrearty told the chairman he would go to England to have contested statements forensically tested.

"You haven't tested one thing in this tribunal. You haven't tested anything I've asked you to test," Mr McBrearty said to Mr Justice Morris.

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"Ma'am, would you ever ask your son to try and control himself?" the judge said to Mr McBrearty's mother.

"No, I won't control myself," said Mr McBrearty.

"Well, if you are not going to control yourself, I'm not going to sit here and listen to that nonsense," the judge said. "We'll rise till tomorrow morning."

Mr McBrearty is disputing the authenticity of a statement attributed to him on October 18th, 1996, and alleges it was created later so that the signature would match that of an alleged admission in relation to the death of Mr Barron.

"My allegation is that the signature on it is the signature of the person who fabricated the statement against me," he said.

Mr McBrearty said he had made a statement to gardaí in October 1997, but had given them information that was not included in the statement in the hands of the tribunal. He said when he was asked by a tribunal investigator if he had signed the statement, he was "never given an original statement".

Earlier Mr Pat Marrinan SC, representing the Garda Commissioner, complained to the chairman that Mr McBrearty was "barracking the witness with unsubstantiated allegations".

The chairman warned Mr McBrearty: "We're not here in order to abuse gardaí or get our own back on gardaí. Whatever grudge you have, sort it out somewhere else."

In a reference to the Kerry Babies case which Supt Shelly had investigated, Mr McBrearty said: "The alien came out of the sky and had sexual intercourse with Joanne Hayes, and I went up and murdered Richie Barron."

He told the superintendent he had "a fantasy" in his head "that I killed Richie Barron".

"That's not correct. There was no fantasy in my head," the superintendent said.

Mr McBrearty also challenged the superintendent's account of how files had been destroyed during a break-in to his office in Athlone Garda station. Supt Shelly said files had been sprayed and destroyed.

"That's a tall story, that one," said Mr McBrearty.

"It's a fact," said Supt Shelly, who told the tribunal there had been a prosecution and conviction as a result of the break-in.

Earlier, Mr McBrearty's cousin, Mr Mark McConnell, who also became a suspect during the Garda investigation, suggested gardaí were to blame for rumours linking the McBrearty family with the Barron death.

"It's certainly not the job of gardaí to start rumours or to fuel them," Supt Shelly said.