A defence counsel for Mr John Gilligan, the man accused of the murder of journalist Veronica Guerin, told the Special Criminal Court today that the evidence against him"does not add up."
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Mr Michael O' Higgins SC said; "You wouldn't hang the proverbial dog on it."
Opening the closing defence submissions in the trial, Mr O' Higgins said he would be scrutinising the "nuts and bolts" of the evidence.
He said he would be raising the character and calibre of protected witnesses Russell Warren and Charles Bowden, who both gave evidence for the State in the trial, and the manner in which the evidence came into being.
Mr O'Higgins said that serious questions have to be raised about the garda investigation and these questions impacted very seriously on how the case translated into evidence.
He was making the closing defence submissions on the fortieth day of the trial of John Gilligan (48), with addresses at Corduff Avenue, Blanchardstown, Dublin; Jessbrook Equestrian Centre, Mucklon, Enfield, Co Kildare; and HM Prison Belmarsh, London, who has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Sunday Independentcrime reporter Veronica Guerin(37) at Naas Road, Clondalkin, Dublin on June 26th, 1996.
Gilligan also denies fifteen other counts alleging the importation of cannabis and firearms and ammunition offences.
Mr O' Higgins said the defence would say that the gang which operated from a premises at the Greenmount industrial estate at Harold's Cross was "a self contained autonomous unit" of five people who carried out its own business and was not "John Gilligan's catchpaw" as the prosecution had alleged.
Counsel said that there were serious questions about the garda search at Greenmount.He said that what was put before the court about an alleged conversation between the accused and a garda Detective Sergeant at Kilcock District Court the day before Ms Guerin's murder was not credible.
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John Gilligan:
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He also said it was the defence submission that there was no corroboration in this case.He said that the court must take a decision whether Russell Warren is capable of credit and if the answer is no then that was the end of his testimony.
Mr O' Higgins said that in his evidence Warren had admitted cheating on his wife and his best friend by spending a night at a hotel in Bray. He said that Warren was "despicable, in breach of trust and devious."
He said that it had been suggested that the gang members were "not choirboys" but there had been no conversion, remorse or conscience shown by them.
He said that the gardai had made payments to Warren and Bowden that were "absolutely unprecedented." He submitted that the gardai had "courted" Bowden and Warren.
He said Warren was "a complete and unadorned police informer who has buttered his bread and made his bed and is on the side of the gardai."
"The manner in which evidence was gathered from Russell Warren contains within it such inherent dangers that it is not safe," he added.
Mr O' Higgins said that Charles Bowden had joined the Army and was a crack shot and qualified as a sniper but his Army career had a downside in that he used his martial arts skill to beat up younger recruits and then suborned them not to give evidence.
He said that on the day before the Guerin murder Bowden sat in the Greenmount lock up polishing bullets, opening the Magnum revolver, cleaningit with a cloth, "all his military expertise being brought to bear and he did not give a thought for Veronica Guerin."
He said that Bowden had schooled his then girlfriend and now wife Juliet Bacon to provide him with an alibi for the day of the murder but she was not up to the task.
"Charles Bowden's movements on the day of the murder are unaccounted for despite his very best efforts to do so," he said.
"We don't know, we can't be sure what he did that day. It is certainly open to inference that he had greater involvement in this incident than he ever admitted."
Mr O' Higgins will continue his submissions tomorrow.