Morris tribunal:A former detective sergeant has accused an ex-colleague of putting on an act at the Morris tribunal in order to get an easy time.
John White denies he assaulted Donegal mother-of-two Róisín McConnell in Garda custody by shouldering her while she was under arrest during the investigation into the death of hit-and-run victim Richie Barron.
Mr White said that former garda John Dooley committed perjury either when he told the tribunal Ms McConnell was shouldered in custody, or did so last year when he said she was not, and in an October 2005 statement when he "vehemently denied" she was pushed, shouldered or assaulted.
"A seasoned detective would not do that if it had happened, I can guarantee that," Mr White said.
Cross-examined by Richard Humphries, for Mr Dooley, Mr White said Mr Dooley "wants to get an easy run through the tribunal". "He wants to sit up here, everybody feeling sorry for him, have a cry, get upset, go out the door in two hours' time and everything is grand, it's over for him."
Mr White said that earlier this week he saw Mr Dooley outside the tribunal offices "in good form minutes after he was upset in the witness box".
"I think an awful lot of it is an act, to be honest with you."
Mr White told Mr Humphries that he thought Mr Dooley "walked out of the job very handily, with a nice package I would think. That's my view of John Dooley," he said.
"He's an opportunistic fellow, he has played the system."
Mr Humphries said there was "a medical context" to Mr Dooley's evidence, and that "it was medically in his interest to make a clean breast of things," while there were "question marks over Mr White's credibility".
"I have never assaulted a woman in my life," Mr White told the tribunal. "There have been altercations with male prisoners when I have been in the room with them, not with a woman - it's as simple as that."
Mr White said he did tell Ms McConnell to put out a cigarette, and "that would be normal procedure", and he said he "skidded her chair" across the room after telling her to stand up.
"It was an attempt to bring Mrs McConnell to her senses, to show her this was a very serious matter," Mr White said. He also said Ms McConnell was shown postmortem photographs, but said they were not pushed into her face as she had said.
He said Det Garda Dooley was present during these incidents, but Garda Georgina Lohan was not. The tribunal has found that Mr Barron died in a hit-and-run and all those arrested in 1996, including Ms McConnell, were innocent.