State told to prepare ‘substantive response’ in Brian Meehan appeal

Lawyers for the State have been told to prepare a "substantive response" in the lead up to Brian Meehan's bid to have his conviction for the murder of journalist Veronica Guerin declared a miscarriage of justice.

Meehan (47), from Crumlin in Dublin, is serving a life sentence in Portlaoise prison having being convicted in July 1999 of the murder of Ms Guerin in June 1996 following a 31-day-trial before the non-jury Special Criminal Court. He was also jailed on drugs and firearms charges.

Meehan has applied to quash his 1999 murder conviction on the basis of new evidence.

The new evidence concerns matters which emerged in the course the 2001 Special Criminal Court trial of John Gilligan.

Counsel for the Director of Public Prosecutions, Tom O'Connell SC, told the Court of Appeal on Monday he had only received a transcript of the Meehan trial on Friday. He said it had to be retrieved "from the bowels of the Four Courts".

Mr O’Connell said there was “endless cross-reference to the case of John Gilligan” in Meehan’s submissions and although he did not concede the relevance of the Gilligan trial to Meehan’s application, counsel said he needed a transcript of that case also.

The evidence of protected witness Russell Warren was central to the Special Criminal Court's decision to convict him.

President of the Court of Appeal Mr Justice Seán Ryan said a fair amount of Mr Meehan’s case was that a Mr Warren is allegedly “not to be trusted” because another court had described him in trenchant terms.

Mr O’Connell said the DPP had brought a motion to have Meehan’s application dismissed on the basis that the alleged newly discovered facts were all known before the original appeal.

The DPP’s motion had been refused by the Court of Criminal Appeal last year. In its ruling, however, the court did not preclude the State from running the same points again in the hearing.

Mr Justice Ryan said the director was still entitled to ask “should this case go ahead at all” but it was for the Court of Appeal to determine.

He said the State had to “make a substantive response” and it was very important the submissions dealt with the whole case.

Mr Justice Ryan put the matter in for mention for case management on Friday, June 19th.

“I’m not giving Mr O’Connell until the end of May to produce submissions to say the case shouldn’t be heard at all,” Mr Justice Ryan said. The case would benefit from some case management, he added.

The Special Criminal Court found Meehan drove a motorbike up to the side of Ms Guerin’s car on the Naas Road and a pillion passenger on the bike fired a number of shots at the Sunday Independent journalist, killing her.

He is seeking to bring an application under Section 2 of the Criminal Procedure Act 1993, contending that “new facts” emanating from material disclosed for the 2001 trial of John Gilligan show Meehan’s conviction was a miscarriage of justice.

Gilligan was cleared of the murder of Veronica Guerin but was convicted of the importation and possession of cannabis resin.