Three senior Garda officers have denied allegations by a Co Donegal publican, Mr Frank McBrearty, that they are among the conspirators in a campaign to damage his family and himself.
Mr Patrick MacEntee SC, for the Garda Commissioner, told the High Court yesterday that specific allegations made against the three members - Chief Supt Denis Fitzpatrick, Supt Joseph Shelly and Det Supt John McGinley - were denied and could be dealt with at the hearing of McBrearty proceedings.
Mr MacEntee also told Mr Justice Smyth that Chief Supt Walter Rice, based at Letterkenny, Co Donegal, had filed an affidavit in court in which he said he had taken steps to ensure that a document circulating in the Letterkenny division Garda station relating to the McBrearty family was withdrawn.
Mr Martin Giblin SC, for Mr McBrearty, said that the withdrawal of the circular was acceptable to his client.
At an earlier court hearing, Mr McBrearty had claimed that the circular required garda∅ to report on the activities of Mr McBrearty, who owns a public house and night-club in Raphoe, and on his extended family and contacts.
Mr McBrearty has claimed that he and his family have been harassed by garda∅ over several years. Following the death of a local man, Mr Richie Barron, in October 1996, Mr McBrearty's son and nephew became the focus of a murder investigation.
The DPP decided not to prosecute the two men and Mr McBrearty claimed that he and his family subsequently began to have summonses served on them over a three-year period. In all, 190 summonses were issued, but all have since been withdrawn by the DPP.
During a High Court hearing on November 22nd, Mr McBrearty said in an affidavit that a small number of garda∅ had conspired together and with criminal elements in Donegal and elsewhere in an attempt to damage him and his family. This had been done to secure revenge for his complaint of corrupt practices against a garda as a result of which that garda had been permitted to retire.
He said the fact that some of the conspirators held very high rank continued to cause him and his family the gravest concern.
