Court reserves judgement in Meehan appeal

The Court of Criminal Appeal has reserved judgment in the appeal by Brian Meehan against his conviction for the murder of journalist Veronica Guerin ten years ago.

After a two day hearing, Mr Justice Nicholas Kearns, presiding at the three judge court, said the court would reserve its judgment in the appeal.

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 sentence of 20, 12, 10 and 5 years for drugs and firearms offences. Meehan appealed against his conviction for all the offences.

The Special Criminal Court found after a 31 day trial 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's counsel Mr Patrick Gageby SC argued that the trial court should not have accepted evidence of telephone traffic between Meehan's mobile phone and the mobile phone of Russell Warren on the day of the murder as corroboration of Warren's evidence.

Warren, who is in the Witness Protection Programme, told the trial that he followed Ms Guerin from Naas District Court to Clondalkin, was in contact by mobile phone with Meehan who was the driver of a stolen motorbike, and saw the pillion passenger shoot Ms Guerin.

Replying to Mr Gageby, State counsel Mr Peter Charleton SC submitted that the pattern and timing of the telephone calls between Meehan and Warren was corroborative of Warren's testimony.

He said there were calls between Warren and Meehan up to six minutes before the murder at 12.54pm on June 26, 1996 and after that there was only one call between them at 1.23pm. Counsel said that apart from that one call all Warren's calls after the murder were with John Gilligan.

Gilligan, who was cleared of the Guerin murder, is serving a 20 years jail sentence for importing drugs.

Mr Charleton said that there was evidence at the trial of threats made by John Gilligan in the presence of Brian Meehan.

He said that Juliet Bowden, wife of gang member Charles Bowden, who also gave evidence for

the prosecution in the Meehan trial, had given evidence that on April 11, 1997 she was in a pub and was asked to call Meehan, which she did.

The call was recorded by gardaí and in it Meehan threatened Ms Bowden in the context of Charles Bowden coming back from Britain and going to the gardaí.