Guerin suspect denies shooting claims
A criminal suspected of shooting journalist Veronica Guerin tonight insisted he had no blood on his hands.
Days after being released from prison, Patrick “Dutchy” Holland said he was not responsible for the murder of the journalist in 1996.
“I haven’t killed anybody ever,” the 66-year-old career criminal said. “There is no blood on my hands.”
He added: “It wasn’t me I didn’t do it. And the witnesses on the Naas Road should be able to describe the person that done it.”
A detective gave evidence at Holland’s trial for drugs offences in a Dublin court that he was the man they suspected had pulled the trigger.
“I don’t know where that all started from, it was said at my trial,” Holland said. “I’ve no convictions for any kind of violence not even common assault. So I don’t know how I got dragged into it.”
He added: “I’ve been charged with robbing banks, but no violence.”
Holland said nobody ever got physically hurt in any of the robberies he carried out. “On the convictions that I have for armed robbery, there is never any mention of violence of any kind,” he said.
On the day of Ms Guerin’s murder, Holland said he had travelled up from Wicklow to Dublin to go to the Labour exchange.
“I have no alibi for the time of the killing but I can’t do anything about that,” he told Sky News Ireland, which stated it did not pay a fee or associated expenses to Holland for the interview.
The criminal was jailed for 20-years in the Special Criminal Court in Dublin in November 1997 for possession of cannabis. It was reduced to 12-years on appeal and he was released from Portlaoise prison at midnight last Friday.
“I don’t know how I can prove me innocence, it is just impossible,” he said.
With tears in his eyes, Holland said: “I seen him, the husband, and the little boy, I was going to ring them and say I didn’t do it. And I got criticised for that.”
Holland has offered to do a lie-detector test to prove he was not involved in her murder.
“If that is what it takes, that is what I will have to do,” he said.
