Shannon Murrin told CBC News Thursday that he can't divulge the details of a settlement he reached with the RCMP over a beating that nearly killed him. (CBC)

A Newfoundland man who claimed in a lawsuit that a former RCMP officer had him beaten to get a murder confession has settled out of court.

Shannon Murrin told CBC News he can't discuss the financial details of the settlement.

In 2000, Murrin was acquitted of murder in the death of eight-year-old Mindy Tran. The girl vanished near her Kelowna, B.C., home in August 1994 and her decomposing body was found a few months later.

In 1995, Murrin, who lived near the Trans, was beaten so badly he spent 11 days in hospital.

The attack set off a lawsuit in a B.C. court against former RCMP Sgt. Gary Tidsbury, the federal government and three acquaintances of Murrin's: Patrick Dunn, Robert Holmes and Ken Macdonald, who were charged with beating him.

A trial of the lawsuit was set for next week.

Murrin, in an interview at his home near St. John's on Thursday, confirmed that a settlement was reached and that he was satisfied with it.

"They paid the money because they done wrong," he said. "They committed criminal acts."

Murrin also believes the Mounties didn't want the case to go to trial.

"If it had've gone to court, everything would've come out," he said. "And the way the RCMP is looking right now across Canada, it's not too good. They didn't want that."

RCMP spokesman Sgt. Rob Vermeulen confirmed the lawsuit was resolved and said there would be no comment on the case.

In his statement of claim, Murrin alleged that Tidsbury, the Mountie, orchestrated the January 1995 attack.

Tidsbury denied this during Murrin's murder trial. Murrin's lawyer, Peter Wilson, told the trial the RCMP investigation was biased and incompetent and that Tidsbury, as the lead investigator, lied under oath about his role.

Dunn pleaded guilty to assaulting Murrin and was given a six-month jail sentence. Charges were dropped Holmes and MacDonald because a court ruled it took too long to bring the men to trial.

No one has been convicted of the little girl's slaying. Murrin said in an interview that police botched the investigation from the beginning by focusing on him.

"There were other people in the neighbourhood they could have been looking at … there were a lot of things they could have done," he said.

Wilson, his lawyer, told the jury at the murder trial that police decided Murrin was the prime suspect, then tried to make the evidence fit.

"When they say, you know, 'We get our man,' it doesn't necessarily mean the guy is guilty," Murrin said.

Vermeulen said the Tran slaying remains an open case.

After the jury acquitted Murrin, he began a relationship with one of the women on his jury. He and Kathy MacDonald now live together in Newfoundland.

Murrin said the settlement doesn't prevent him from trying to publish a book he wrote about his ordeal. He recently had a falling out with the publisher and is searching for a new publisher for the book he has titled Hang Shannon Murrin.

"That's what they wanted to do with me in B.C. for a long while, right?" he said to explain the title.

With files from CBC