Meehan fails to overturn Guerin murder conviction

BRIAN MEEHAN, the only man currently serving a prison sentence for the murder of Veronica Guerin, has failed in his bid for freedom.

The Court of Criminal Appeal yesterday dismissed an appeal by Meehan against his conviction for the killing of the Sunday Independent crime journalist 10 years ago.

The 41-year-old criminal from the Dublin suburb of Crumlin is serving a life sentence in Portlaoise Prison after being convicted of being involved in Guerin’s murder by the non-jury Special Criminal Court at the end of a 31-day hearing in 1999.

The original trial heard that Meehan had driven the motorbike which carried the gunman to and from the murder scene on the Naas Road on June 26, 1996. He was also given a number of concurrent sentences ranging from five to 20 years for various drugs and firearms offences.

Lawyers for Meehan challenged the evidence of his former associate, Russell Warren, who entered the State’s witness protection programme in order to give testimony against other members of the drugs gang led by crime boss John Gilligan.

They claimed Warren’s evidence during the original trial was not adequately corroborated in accordance with the requirements of Irish law.

Meehan’s legal team argued that mobile phone records showing calls between both men on the day of Guerin’s killing were not admissible as evidence.

However, the Court of Criminal Appeal (CCA) ruled yesterday that the Special Criminal Court had implemented the warnings about the evidence of suspect witnesses during the original trial.

It also believed that the trial judges were entitled to conclude that the phone records constituted corroborative evidence.

While accepting that such evidence was incapable of corroborating “beyond reasonable doubt” every detail of Warren’s evidence, the CCA said it was still satisfied that it constituted “an independent body of strong supporting evidence tending to connect [Meehan] with the killing” in many critical aspects.

In a 62-page judgment, the three-judge court said the frequency and pattern of phone calls between Warren and both Gilligan and Meehan on the day of Guerin’s murder was “striking”.

It also ruled that there was abundant evidence to show that Meehan was a member of Gilligan’s criminal gang which imported drugs and firearms, including the testimony from another of his former associates, Charles Bowen, who also entered the State’s witness protection scheme.

In a brief address to the court, presiding judge Mr Justice Nicholas Kearns said in keeping with usual practice, the CCA would merely announce its decision with copies of the judgment being made available to all interested parties.

Dressed in a lilac shirt and grey slacks, Meehan displayed only the slightest emotion as Mr Justice Kearns announced that it was dismissing the appeal against all his convictions.

First, the greying-haired criminal, who has aged considerably from the first time he came to public attention in 1999, momentarily bowed his head before briefly raising his eyes skywards.

Some legal experts had thought Meehan might have the conviction overturned as another member of Gilligan’s gang, Paul Ward, who was also convicted of Guerin’s murder, was successful in a similar appeal in 2002.

Handcuffed and surrounded by a number of gardaí and prison officers, Meehan spent less than five minutes in the courtroom, stopping only briefly to exchange a few words with a friend on the way out of the building before being brought back to Portlaoise Prison.

No member of the Guerin family appeared to be in court.