Williams was 'terrified' by alleged death threats

A journalist has told a jury at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court that he was "terrified" by death threats allegedly made to him by a man he believed "had the capacity and wherewithal" to carry them out.

Mr Paul Williams, Crime Editor of the Sunday World, said that based on his research into the man on other matters he believed that he had the capacity to "kill or seriously injure me".

Mr James Walsh, aged 46, of Mountain View Drive, Churchtown, has pleaded not guilty to threatening to kill Mr Williams during a phone call on June 25, 2003 and also threatening to cause him serious harm in a later call the same day.

Mr Williams agreed, during his cross-examination by Mr Pat Russell BL, defending Mr Walsh, that threats were "an occupational hazard" in his line of work noting that his two colleagues, Veronica Guerin and Martin O'Hagan, had been murdered.

"My colleague had been threatened in the same way by Gilligan and she ended up dead. My colleague in Belfast was also threatened and was shot dead. I took it seriously."

When Mr Russell asked him about a TV interview he had with Gerry Ryan on Ryan Confidential in which "you said you were not afraid of any scum bags", Mr Williams described it as "bravado".

He said that during the interview they were discussing the type of people "that shot Anthony Campbell and Baiba Saluite" and said: "I wasn't going to say that I was terrified of scum bags".

He denied that he could be mistaken that it was Mr Walsh's voice on the phone making the threats. "I would not be sitting here today three years later if I wasn't sure."

He denied a suggestion by Mr Russell that people sound different on the phone, saying he would recognise someone's voice on the phone after having had a conversation with them previously.

Mr Williams agreed that he had returned a call to Mr Walsh several days after the alleged threats when a message was left for him at his office but denied that it was contradictory that he should ring a man he was in fear of.

"I wanted to find out what he was at." He agreed Mr Walsh denied making any threats to him.

When asked why he adopted a friendly tone and referred to Mr Walsh as 'Jimmy' during recorded phone calls he made to him following the threats, he replied that he "wanted to play along with him to see what he would say" and added: "As a journalist you try to extract information from people."

Mr Russell put it to Mr Williams that phone records showed that his client was speaking to a senior garda on his own mobile during the time one of the alleged threatening calls was made from another mobile phone.

Mr Williams said it would have been easy for him "to tell someone to hold on for a minute" while he made the threat using a different phone and denied Mr Russell's further suggestion that "someone could have set Mr Walsh up".

The trial continues before Judge Desmond Hogan and a jury of five men and seven women.