Meehan starts Guerin murder conviction appeal

Brian Meehan began his appeal today against his conviction for the murder of journalist Veronica Guerin - one day after the tenth anniversary of the gunning down of the crime reporter on the Naas Road in 1996.

Meehan (aged 41), a native of Crumlin in Dublin is the only person serving a sentence for Ms Guerin's murder on June 26, 1996. He was jailed for life by the Special Criminal Court in July 1999 and also given concurrent jail sentences of 20, 12 and 5 years for drugs and firearms offences.

The court found that Meehan was the driver of the motorbike from which a gunman fired six shots into Ms Guerin's body as she sat in her car stopped at traffic lights on the Naas Road.

Meehan was in court today for the opening of his appeal and spoke briefly to his father Kevin Meehan who was also in court. Retired Detective Superintendent Todd O' Loughlin, who was one of the senior garda officers in charge of the Lucan investigation team, was also in court for the hearing.

Today Meehan's counsel Mr Patrick Gageby SC told the Court of Criminal Appeal that he would be challenging the evidence of Russell Warren who is in the Witness Protection Programme and whose evidence led to Meehan's conviction for murder.

Mr Gageby submitted that the Special Criminal Court should not have accepted evidence of traffic between Meehan's mobile phone and Warren's mobile phone on the morning of the murder as corroboration of Warren's evidence.

Mr Gageby said that between the first day of the trial and the last day of the trial there was "an abundance of evidence laid before the court".

He said there was no doubt that the telephone traffic evidence was the "trigger" which allowed the Special Criminal Court to accept it as corroboration of the evidence of Russell Warren who was an accomplice.

Mr Gageby said that Warren's core case was that Brian Meehan was a complicit part in a joint act and that included being proxy to the plot to kill Ms Guerin.

The hearing before the three judge Court of Criminal Appeal is expected to last three days and the court is expected to reserve its judgement.