Merits of witness protection scheme are questioned

TAXPAYERS forked out close to €500,000 last year to relocate supergrasses who gave State evidence to convict criminal accomplices.

The bill for the State’s witness protection programme more than doubled last year to €457,110, up from €190,079 the year before.

The programme which was intended to allow accomplices in serious crimes to turn supergrasses and give evidence in order to secure convictions was first introduced in 1997 in the wake of the Guerin murder.

However, it has been heavily criticized following its failure to produce dividends in the form of reliable convictions.

Setbacks, where the testimony of protected witnesses failed to gain solid convictions, include the acquittal of John Gilligan for the 1996 murder of journalist Veronica Guerin and the successful appeal by Paul Ward against his conviction for the Guerin murder earlier this year.

Both convictions had been sought using Gilligan associates who were offered protection in return for their testimony.

When Ward was initially convicted, Mr Adrian Hardiman, then a senior council and now a supreme court judge, said such evidence was found to be unreliable in the North and was ultimately abandoned.

The costly witness protection programme will come under further scrutiny when the appeal of Brian Meehan for his conviction for the same murder is heard.

Most of the current increase in the cost of the scheme is believed to be as a result of expenses incurred maintaining a new life for the three protected witnesses involved in the investigation into the Guerin murder.

The three, Charles Bowden, Russell Warren and John Dunne, are the only three publicly known participants in the witness protection scheme.

Charles Bowden and Russell Warren both testified as protected witnesses against Gilligan.

All three are now living under assumed identities in unknown locations outside Ireland.

Bowden, who admitted to cleaning and loading the gun used to kill Veronica Guerin, was the first person to take part in the witness protection scheme.

He was released from Arbour Hill prison in April last year and, along with his wife, Juliet Bacon, flown under armed guard to an unknown location.

Russell Warren and John Dunne were also relocated last year.

A spokesperson for the Department of Justice said apart from the cost of the programme, no further information or details could be released.

Responding to a parliamentary question last year, then Justice Minister, John O’Donoghue, said there were no adverse security implications for the general community.