Accused denies any involvement in Cork's largest cocaine haul

One of the men accused of having €440m worth of cocaine in Dunlough Bay in West Cork last year claimed today that he had nothing to do with the crime and was pushed on to the boat carrying all the drugs.

Martin Wanden, (aged 45), was under cross-examination by the prosecution at Cork Circuit Criminal Court.

Wanden said he went to the assistance of a friend who got into difficulties fishing but he arrived to find the boat laden with drugs. Tom Creed senior counsel said he would have thought that Wanden would want to get away in the boat he arrived in and get away from the boat with the drugs.

“I would have thought the last place you would have wanted to be was on the RIB with all the packages,” Mr Creed asked and the dependent said, “That is for sure.”

The senior counsel said, “You say now that you were pushed from the RIB you drove out on, to the RIB with the drugs.” Wanden replied, “More a shove than a push. ‘Get on there’ and they take off.”

Mr Creed said, “Pushed and shoved are the same in my lingo, they mean the same thing. Was it a push?” Wanden replied, “Yeah, if you like, a push.”

The prosecution senior counsel said Wanden had claimed that he wanted to be brought back to the shore and away from the drugs and Mr Creed asked why he did not go away with the men in the other boat who were going to get petrol.

Wanden said, “This was not a debate like now. This was a split second… There’s millions of pounds worth of stuff, they’re not having a debate about it… They are not having it, they took off.”

The defendant added that Charlie Goldie – the man who told him he got into difficulty while fishing – and the other man could have been going further out to sea for all he knew. He now blames Charlie Goldie for his difficulties.

He also said he did not have time to think about the best course of action and that he was like a drowned rat it in his T-shirt and shorts and was feeling seasick.

Wanden admitted that he had two passports in false names, Anthony Lyndon and Steven Witsie, and this was not something of which he was proud but that he needed a false passport in South Africa as a result of what he described as a civil matter with his actual passport.

Mr Creed asked him if it was not a coincidence that one of the phones that was clearly used in the planning of this drugs operation had been registered in the name of Steven Witsie. Wanden said he was not in Ireland when the phone was registered to that name. Mr Creed asked him who would have used one of his aliases.

“I have my suspicions but I wouldn’t want to say unless I knew,” Wanden said.

“Is there someone out there that has it in for you?” Mr Creed asked.

“I have no idea,” Wanden said.

Mr Creed said that when Wanden was rescued he gave his name and details to rescuers and the ambulance crew as Anthony Lyndon. Mr Creed asked if this was not a deliberate attempt to mislead the authorities. Wanden said he could not think straight as he had been left to die. Mr Creed said in those circumstances someone would be more likely to give their real name. Wanden disagreed.

Wanden, (aged 45), of no fixed address, and his co-accused, Joseph Daly, (aged 41), from 9 Carisbrook Avenue, Bexley, Kent, and Perry Wharrie, (aged 48), of 60 Pryles Lane, Essex, all deny charges of having drugs for sale or supply at Dunlough Bay on July 2 2007.

The case goes into its eight week at Cork Circuit Criminal Court on Monday.