Witness protection key to tackling gun crime

IRELAND’S burgeoning gun culture needs to be combated with a beefed-up witness protection programme, Labour last night insisted.

The party’s senators will try to put the crime-busting initiative on a statutory footing to boost its effectiveness.

The programme has been a key weapon in the war against gang crime for ten years and Senator Dominic Hannigan is bringing forward a bill to formalise it in legislation.

Mr Hannigan says the move is needed following criticism of the way it operates by the criminal court of appeal in 2003 in the John Gilligan case when judges held that the procedures followed by gardaí compromised the evidence of the two witnesses.

“The programme must withstand charges that evidence has been bought, that prosecution witnesses are tainted or that prosecution informants have operated with impunity and committed far more crimes than their evidence may have prevented,” Mr Hannigan said.

“The capacity of An Garda Síochána to combat organised crime is increasingly dependent on the cooperation of former criminal gang members who give evidence for the prosecution.

“The Witness Protection Programme is essential for the safety of persons who have engaged in organised crime but are now prepared to give evidence.

“A working Witness Protection Programme is an essential part of the Garda response to the changing nature of crime. But, if the programme is to operate successfully, it must be reliable and effective.

“The Court of Criminal Appeal suggested the programme be put on a proper statutory footing. The Court was quite uncompromising in its criticism. It pointed out that there was never a programme; that there were no clear guidelines as to what could be offered to witnesses to induce them to give evidence; and that the whole thing was badly thought out and developed a law of its own.

“Labour believes that the most effective way to deal with these concerns and to ensure that major criminals are put behind bars for a long time, is to put the scheme on a proper statutory basis, under proper and independent oversight so as to safeguard against any claims of abuse or miscarriage of justice,” he said.