A WITNESS box is too grand a term for the metal chair and wooden platform in Kilcock District Court where Veronica Guerin would have given evidence of: her alleged assault. It was empty yesterday as the courtroom drama in the Kildare court unfolded without its two main characters.
The case was just another name on the list, along with the traffic offences and the drunk and disorderlies. The charges against Mr John Gilligan were not listed for trial yesterday, simply for mention.
But the mention of the name was enough to bring more than 20 reporters and photographers to stand on the gravel outside. At 9.30 a.m., gardai arrived with two sniffer dogs. One searched the small brown building, which doubles as a public health centre.
Outside, the photographers took pictures of the court clerk, every garda walking into court, and bemused local solicitors, before finally photographing each other. The man they came to photograph was not going to turn up.
In the stuffy courtroom, with a door marked "Dentist" and no-smoking posters, Judge John Brophy rattled through the computer printout of cases. He asked one young man how he would like three months in prison. "Not very much, your honour," the man replied. But Judge Brophy said there was no room in there for you anyway and fined him £1,100.
Then Supt Brendan Quinn stood up and announced the case. "Is Mr Hanahoe in court?" Judge Brophy asked, referring to Mr Gilligan's solictor, Michael Hanahoe. There was no reply.
Supt Quinn told the court his instructions were to have the charges against Mr Gilligan struck out. With a quick movement of his ball point pen Judge Brophy did just that.
That could have been that. But instead Judge Brophy removed his wrist watch and placed it in front of him on the bench, asking the court to rise and observe a minute's silence.
After a minute of birdsong from outside, Judge Brophy gave a tribute to Ms Guerin's "crusade", urging others to maintain it. If we gave in, he said, the gangland people would rob our rights and freedoms.
Ironically, one of those rights was the reason Mr Gilligan's case was struck out. A defendant's counsel has the right to cross-examine a prosecution witness, especially in a district court, where the emphasis is on oral evidence. The only prosecution witness in this case was murdered in her car two weeks ago today, after being convicted on a speeding charge in Naas District Court.
