High Court proceedings by a Co Donegal publican, Mr Frank McBrearty, against a number of senior gardaí were adjourned indefinitely yesterday because of a forthcoming judicial inquiry into the same matters. Mr McBrearty alleges that the gardaí were leading conspirators in a campaign to damage him and his family.
Mr Martin Giblin SC, for Mr McBrearty, who owns a pub and nightclub in Raphoe, told Mr Justice Kelly that events had overtaken the High Court proceedings. The retired High Court President, Mr Justice Morris, had been appointed to chair a judicial inquiry into the allegations.
The Garda authorities deny there was a conspiracy to damage the McBrearty family. A previous court hearing was told that Chief Supt Denis Fitzpatrick, Supt Joseph Shelly and Det Supt John McGinley were all denying Mr McBrearty's allegations.
Mr McBrearty claims that he and his family have been harassed by gardaí for several years. Following the death of a local man, Mr Richie Barron, in October 1996, Mr Brearty's son and nephew became the focus of a murder investigation.
The DPP decided not to prosecute the two men and Mr McBrearty alleged that he and his family began to have summonses served on them over a three-year period.
In all, 190 summonses were issued. All have since been withdrawn by the DPP.
During a High Court hearing last November, Mr McBrearty said in an affidavit that a small number of gardaí had conspired together and with criminal elements in Donegal and elsewhere in an effort to damage him and his family. This, he alleges, was done to avenge his complaint of corrupt practices against a garda as a result of which that garda was permitted to retire.