Accused man says Gardai fabricated interviews

A man accused of possession heroin and 'ecstasy' worth €3.5m has told a jury that gardai fabricated interviews where he allegedly said he was to collect the drugs.

He also claimed at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court that the gardai told him he would be murdered by either a loyalist or republican paramilitary gang when he left the garda station.

Karl Donnelly (31), of Spitalfields, Francis Street, Dublin 8 has pleaded not guilty to three charges of possession of the drugs for sale or supply on September 18, 2001

Mr Donnelly told his counsel, Mr Ciaran O'Loughlin SC that he was only in the company of Ashley Dawson, the woman in whose car 12 kilos of heroin and approximately 100,000 "ecstasy" tablets were found, because he was showing her the way home after she got lost.

He said Ms Dawson's daughter was supposed to be staying in his girlfriend's house in Kilfenora Road, Crumlin that night.

She had said she would leave the girl there around 9pm but when they didn't arrive, Mr Donnelly rang her and discovered she was lost. She said she saw a sign for Enfield so Mr Donnelly told her to wait there and he would go out to meet her.

Mr Donnelly said he met Ms Dawson at Enfield and he drove in front to show her the way home, phoning her several times to make sure she was behind him.

On the way back to Dublin, a car drove up beside him very quickly and stopped in front of his van, causing him to smash into the back of the car. He saw a man whom he discovered to be a garda get out with a firearm.

The accused said he never saw his van or Ms Dawson's car being searched as his t-shirt was pulled up over his head.

When he was interviewed by the gardai, he said he knew nothing about the drugs but told the jury the gardai started threatening him and asking him about guns and paramilitary organisations.

He denied he was asked the questions or made the answers to these questions recorded in a garda statement which he declined to sign.

In cross-examination by Mr Fergal Foley, Mr Donnelly denied he had said "F*** me, I did not think there was that much" when given the amounts of the drugs or that he had said he did not own the drugs but was to collect them.

He denied he had made 14 phone calls to Ms Dawson's phone from the time he left home until they were stopped by the gardai. Mr Donnelly said his girlfriend's daughter had made most of those calls before he left and several calls he had made were not answered.

Mr Donnelly agreed that although it was a Monday night, and the two 9-year-old girls did not go to the same school, their mothers had made arrangements for them to spend the night together.

He denied he was in charge of the drugs and was now letting Ms Dawson "take the can" for the operation.

The trial has now reached its closing stages and the jury of six men and six women will begin its deliberations tomorrow after it has been addressed by both prosecuting and defence counsels and charged by Judge Patrick McCartan.