Analysis: The Morris tribunal is now hearing material at the nub of the controversy, writes Carol Coulter, Legal Affairs Correspondent
How did Frank McBrearty jnr apparently come to make a statement admitting the unlawful killing of Richie Barron?
In the whole inquiry into the events involving certain members of the Garda Síochána in Donegal, this is the most important question, touching as it does on the liberty of a citizen and the reputation of his whole family in the community.
Mr McBrearty has always denied he made such a statement. Members of the Garda have been equally adamant that he did. But if he did there were some very odd things about it, as counsel for the tribunal pointed out yesterday when delivery of the tribunal's opening statement continued.
First of all, the statement does not meet the necessary Garda criteria for such statements.
It is not signed top and bottom, as it should be. Its content does not accord with the pathologists' conclusions about how Mr Barron met his death.
He said he used, and then discarded, a piece of timber. This has never been found.
But, even more seriously, a statement exists from another member of the force, Garda Martina Fowley, that she saw one of the investigating gardaí apparently copying Mr Brearty's signature on to a piece of paper in the station while the interview was going on. He joked about it, asking her was it not a good likeness.
It is also odd that the Director of Public Prosecutions was not told of the existence of this statement. Supt Kevin Lennon recommended that no prosecution be taken against Mr McBrierty because of the shortcomings in the statement.
However, it was used as a basis to rearrest Mr McBrearty's cousin, Mr Mark Connell, the following June. There is no explanation for the delay of six months between the making of the statement and Mr McConnell's arrest.
The only evidence against Mr McBrearty was this statement, which he has denied making, and the existence of "witnesses" who claimed they had seen him some 300 yards from the scene of Mr Barron's death looking agitated.
This evidence came from informers who were shown to be discredited by counsel for the tribunal on Thursday. Both later withdrew their statements. The question exists as to why they made them in the first place, with allegations that a local officer, Garda John O'Dowd, encouraged them.
Garda O'Dowd was officially on duty the night Richie Barron was killed. However, he was not in the station at Raphoe at the time, and some time elapsed before he got to the scene. He was with an off-duty officer, Garda Mulligan, at the time, in circumstances which have not yet been clarified.
The two "informants" who were the source of the allegations against Mr McBrearty were yesterday also shown to be at the centre of a series of phone-calls to other relatives of his family.
Charlotte Peoples and Mark McConnell's wife were cousins, and the two couples were friendly.
About three weeks after the death of Richie Barron they received a series of phone calls claiming that Michael Peoples had been involved in the death, and seeking to extort money. These calls were reported to the Garda. However, nothing was done about their complaints. It was the intervention of a private investigator, hired by Mr Frank McBrearty snr, who found that most of these calls were made from the home of one of the informants, Mr Willie Doherty. One call was made from the home of Garda O'Dowd.
Counsel for the tribunal told the tribunal yesterday that Mr Doherty had said he was with Garda O'Dowd when he made such a call. Garda O'Dowd denied the call and claimed he was on duty. However, an examination of the station records shows that these had been altered to show him signing out at a later time. The earlier, Tippexed-out, time would have allowed him to be at home at the time the call was made.
But the issues raised by counsel yesterday spread the cause for concern about these events far beyond Garda O'Dowd, and potentially implicate officers of more senior rank in the attempt to wrongly prosecute the McBreartys.