A confidential Garda report has revealed that senior gardaí were aware more than four years ago of serious failures in the investigation into the death of cattle dealer Mr Richie Barron.
The report, disclosed at the Morris tribunal yesterday, said there appeared to be no "co-ordination or overall responsibility taken" in the initial investigation into Mr Barron's death on the morning of October 14th, 1996.
It said gardaí allowed 56 hours to elapse before starting their investigations, that they failed to preserve the scene in Raphoe, Co Donegal, and that they overlooked homes "within 100 yards" of it in door-to-door inquiries.
Counsel for the tribunal, Mr Peter Charleton SC, noted that the criticisms, which were contained in an internal report prepared in March 1998 by Supt Kevin Lennon, were "much more stinging" than those in a report by the same officer to the Director of Public Prosecutions.
In the second day of his opening statement to the tribunal, Mr Charleton also disclosed further details of an allegation that two unnamed gardaí killed Mr Barron.
In a statement revealed at the tribunal, a Garda "informant" Ms Adrienne McGlinchey, said she was told to clean the alleged murder weapon by Det Garda Noel McMahon, who has since been suspended from the force. Ms McGlinchey's statement was made to the investigation conducted between February 1999 and May 2000 by Garda Assistant Commissioner Kevin Carty into alleged Garda misconduct in Donegal,
Ms McGlinchey said Det Garda McMahon asked her to give £10,000 to an unidentified man to help out "a garda in trouble". She said the man in question gave her a metal object, off which she washed what may have been blood. She claimed Det Garda McMahon told her the implement was used by two gardaí, one of whom "clobbered" Mr Barron to death.
In her statement to the Carty inquiry, Ms McGlinchey said she believed the story was "rubbish", noting that Det Garda McMahon often lied to her. Det Garda McMahon has denied all the allegations.
Queries were raised by Mr Charleton yesterday over the movements of two gardaí on the night of Mr Barron's death. They were Garda Patrick Mulligan and Garda John O'Dowd, who were said to have accompanied two other gardaí in an examination of the scene on the morning of the 14th.
"One of the issues which arises is as to what gardaí Mulligan and O'Dowd were doing," said Mr Charleton. The former was officially on duty, the latter was not, he noted.
Mr Charleton said that, in a statement to the Carty investigation, Garda James Connolly said he saw gardaí Mulligan and O'Dowd in a pub in Lifford on the night of the 13th. Garda O'Dowd indicated to the Carty inquiry, however, that any witness who testified to seeing them in a pub must have been "mistaken about the date".
Subsequently, Garda Martin Leonard of the Garda Representative Association told Carty inquiry investigators: "We are conceding the pub issue in full". He asked would the investigators guarantee a limited "caution" but they indicated they could not give such a guarantee, said Mr Charleton.
He said the tribunal would have to establish whether Garda Leonard was acting on "express instructions" from gardaí Mulligan and O'Dowd.
The tribunal is not sitting today as Donegal Courthouse, is needed for Circuit Court hearings. Delivery of the preliminary opening statement will resume tomorrow.
