A lawyer for Brian Meehan, the man accused of murdering journalist Veronica Guerin, claimed at the Special Criminal Court yesterday that the prosecution case was based upon the "suspect evidence" of a number of accomplices.
Mr John McCrudden QC said the case exemplified the dangers of relying upon accomplice evidence - the State witnesses were "a gallery of rogues and convicts whose evidence is laced with implausibility and pockmarked by contradiction and inconsistency". The prosecution was trying to bring about the conviction of an innocent man, he claimed.
The accused man's father, Mr Kevin Meehan, who was shot and injured in a gun attack at his home on Monday night, came to court yesterday. He waved to his son who returned the greeting.
It was the 29th day of the trial of Brian Meehan (34) of no fixed abode, and formerly of Clifton Court and Stanaway Road, Dublin, who has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Ms Guerin (36), at Naas Road, Clondalkin, Dublin on June 26th, 1996. Meehan also denies 16 other charges of importing and having cannabis for supply. He has also pleaded not guilty to having a Sten sub-machine gun, a silenced barrel, pistols and ammunition with intent to endanger life at Tallaght, Dublin between 1995 and 1996.
Mr Mc Crudden said the first hurdle the prosecution must cross in relation to the accomplice witnesses is that they must be creditworthy. "If the court does not find the witnesses credible, believable or trustworthy that is the end of the matter," he added.
He said the four State witnesses - Charles Bowden, Juliet Bowden, Russell Warren and Julian Clohessy - exemplified all the dangers in dealing with accomplice evidence. He said those witnesses had attempted to reduce their roles in the case and to shift the blame to Mr Meehan.
He said the defence did not accept the prosecution's contention that Julian Clohessy was not an accomplice. He said Clohessy's evidence was bad, the evidence of Charles and Juliet Bowden was worse and the very worst evidence came from Russell Warren. "We are dealing with suspect witnesses. We are dealing with witnesses whose evidence is discredited and degraded," he said.
Mr McCrudden said that Warren and Charles Bowden had elected to give "the cheapest and easiest form of evidence", which exemplified the art of the blame-shifting accomplice. He said the defence submissions would bear out that the prosecution was seeking to bring about the conviction of an innocent man.
He said the court, as a tribunal of fact, could only convict from logic and reason and applied law which established the case beyond a reasonable doubt.
"We say the case falls massively short of that," he added. "Brian Meehan is no angel. I don't come to this court to say he is as good as gold. He is innocent of these crimes but he is a person who has mixed with the wrong people and therefore he is vulnerable.
"All great miscarriages of justice, the Birmingham Six, the Guildford Four, all were people who were vulnerable," he added.
Mr McCrudden said Clohessy, who testified that Meehan had told him of his involvement in the Guerin murder during a conversation at the POD nightclub, was not an independent source of corroborative evidence. He was closely aligned and identified with Charles Bowden and his evidence should not be regarded as other than accomplice evidence.
"He was not a good citizen. He was a drug abusing, cocaine using associate of Charles Bowden. He was dishonest. He is not independent. He was prejudiced in his attitude to Brian Meehan," he said.
Defence submissions continue today.