Meehan appeal dismissed
The Court of Criminal Appeal has dismissed the appeal by Brian Meehan against his conviction for the murder of journalist Veronica Guerin 10 years ago.
Meehan (aged 41), a native of Crumlin in Dublin is the only person serving a sentence for Ms Guerin's murder on June 26, 1996. He was jailed for life by the Special Criminal Court in July 1999 and also given concurrent jail sentence of 20, 12, 10 and 5 years for drugs and firearms offences.
Meehan had appealed against his conviction for all the offences.
The Special Criminal Court found after a 31-day trial that Meehan was the driver of the motorbike from which a gunman fired six shots into Ms Guerin's body as she sat in her car stopped at traffic lights on the Naas Road.
Today, Mr Justice Nicholas Kearns, presiding at the three-judge appeal court, said that the court dismissed all the appeals against conviction in the case. Meehan showed no emotion after the ruling. His father Kevin Meehan was in court for the brief hearing as was retired Detective Superintendent Todd O' Loughlin , one of the main garda officers in the Guerin murder investigation.
Meehan's counsel Mr Patrick Gageby SC had argued during a two-day appeal that the trial court should not have accepted evidence of telephone traffic between Meehan's mobile phone and the mobile phone of Russell Warren on the day of the murder as corroboration of Warren's evidence.
Warren, who is in the Witness Protection Programme, told the trial that he followed Ms Guerin from Naas District Court to Clondalkin, was in contact by mobile phone with Meehan who was the driver of a stolen motorbike, and saw the pillion passenger shoot Ms Guerin.
Replying to Mr Gageby, State counsel Mr Peter Charleton SC submitted that the pattern and timing of the telephone calls between Meehan and Warren was corroborative of Warren's testimony.
He said there were calls between Warren and Meehan up to six minutes before the murder at 12.54 pm on June 26th, 1996 and after that there was only one call between them at 13.23 pm. Counsel said that apart from that one call all Warren's calls after the murder were with John Gilligan.
Gilligan, who was cleared of the Guerin murder, is serving a 20-year jail sentence for importing drugs.
In a 62-page written judgment the court said: "Modern Ireland is awash with illegal drugs and beset with the enormous social problems which attend their use. Gangland killings in connection with that trade have virtually become a daily occurrence.
"A Witness Protection Scheme may well provide one of the few effective ways of dealing with these activities, a consideration which must be kept in mind if the community's right to see serious crime being prosecuted is to be respected. Evidence emanating from witnesses in such a programme is not automatically to be scorned or discounted," the judgement said.
"This court believes that the Special Criminal Court was entitled to conclude and hold that the telephone traffic constituted corroborative evidence in respect of the evidence given by Russell Warren."
The judgement went on to say that the telephone evidence do corroborate Warren's account in the manner required by Irish law. The judgement added that there was abundant evidence that Meehan was a member of John Gilligan's criminal gang which imported drugs and firearms.
"In particular the court was entitled to have regard to the evidence of motive for the killing of Veronica Guerin. In this case there was clear evidence of the hatred exhibited by John Gilligan towards Veronica Guerin because of her journalistic endeavours in exposing those involved in drug dealing and drug importation, and in particular, John Gilligan and his gang.
"Ms Guerin was to be the principal witness against John Gilligan arising out of an alleged assault perpetrated upon her by John Gilligan."
The judgement also said that the court was satisfied that the Special Criminal Court had adequate evidence to convict Meehan for the drugs and firearms offences.
