Morris tribunal:A retired detective said that Frank McBrearty jnr made "wild allegations" because he knew he had made a false confession to a murder that never happened and it was causing him difficulty.
Former Det Sgt John Melody questioned Mr McBrearty on December 4th, 1996, when the Raphoe publican was arrested for the murder of Richie Barron (54).
Mr Melody was one of four officers brought from Dublin to Donegal to question Mr McBrearty, one of 12 people arrested during the Garda investigation into Mr Barron's death.
Mr McBrearty denies he made a contested statement of admission during his arrest for the murder of the cattle dealer.
Mr Melody said Mr McBrearty was not shown postmortem photographs of Mr Barron during questioning and he was unaware that photographs were shown to other prisoners, nor was Mr McBrearty threatened or physically abused.
Tribunal barrister Paul McDermott SC said that Martin McCallion, who was arrested four days after Mr McBrearty, told gardaí that Mr McBrearty said he was shown postmortem photographs and "slapped about the place." Mr Melody said no one approached him about these allegations in Dublin or when he returned to Donegal a week later.
He said Mr McBrearty "would seem to be aware that he has made a statement and it's causing him concern. He targets us in particular doing various things to him. It is my belief that the reason we are targeted in that manner is that he knows that he has made a statement.
"He knows that it's a difficulty and he sees a way out of it by making all these wild allegations that he is making."
Mr McDermott said it was "rather extraordinary" that propositions put to Mr McBrearty by the detectives who questioned him "form the nucleus if not the essence" of what was said in the admission. "Were you surprised at how close the description was in the admission was to the scenario that you had put?" he asked Mr Melody.
"That was a scenario that was generally known to be a possibility," Mr Melody replied.