Guerin case fiasco
ROBBIE MacGABHANN argues that the 26-County criminal justice system has been seriously damaged by the means used to secure convictions against those the Gardaí believe were involved in the killing of Veronica Guerin
``We are very satisfied with the result today''. These were
the words of Garda Commissioner Pat Byrne last week after the
failure of the 26-County state to secure a conviction against
John Gilligan for the killing of Veronica Guerin.
Gilligan was convicted on five counts of drug trafficking and
11 offences in all for which he was sentenced to 28 years in
prison. This is considered by the Gardaí to be a success
even though it is highly unlikely that Gilligan will serve such a
lengthy sentence, as other convictions of associates in his
criminal business have had their lengthy convictions
substantially reduced. Patrick Holland had his 20-year sentence
reduced to 12 years and Brian Meehan is appealing his 12-year
sentence.
This though, is only one of a series of serious deficiencies
in not just the Garda investigation but the whole method and
rationale of the prosecution case. The 26-County criminal justice
system has been seriously damaged by the means used to secure
convictions against those the Gardaí believe were involved
in the killing of Veronica Guerin.
The first gaping hole is the misuse of the witness protection
scheme set up in the wake of the Guerin killing. In this case,
the witness protection scheme has been used to shield three of
the accomplices, Russell Warren, John Dunne and Charles Bowden.
The garda use of whistleblowers creates serious problems for
future criminal investigations.
Assistant Garda Commissioner Tony Hickey believes that ``the
use of co-operative accomplices is one of the most important and
effective means of fighting organised crime gangs''.
In other words, the Gardaí are accepting that the only
way to tackle criminal organisations is let them form, break the
law and then counteract them by recruiting informers with dubious
reasons guiding their unconvincing testimony. Is this really the
best we can do to tackle crime?
Even more damning about the witness protection scheme was its
failure to adequately protect the female witness who was
allegedly with Gilligan in Amsterdam at the time of the Guerin
assassination and overheard the contents of a conversation
between him and another witness, Russell Warren.
The real meat of the Garda investigation was the 1,400
interviews, 3,500 statements, 425 searches, 214 arrests and 105
firearms seized. It was these investigations that led to the
discovery of the warehouse used by Gilligan and others to store
drugs and coordinate their criminal activities. It was here too
that the financial records that showed the scale of the drug
smuggling operation were found and it was this information that
led to the conviction of Gilligan and the justification for such
a long sentence.
Some positive changes have come from the Guerin investigation.
We now have a Criminal Assets Bureau. Unfortunately, the speed
with which it was established has created doubts about the
constitutionality of all its activities. This is a common theme
throughout the Guerin investigation - haste to secure convictions
meant that good investigative practices and basic civil rights
have been sacrificed in order to secure convictions.
The Special Court in Green Street is anathema to a proper
judicial system. The use of this court to deal with the Guerin
killing has set a bad precedent which could easily lead to
miscarriages of justice and, worse still, badly made judgments
which could be overturned in higher courts. The argument why it
is not possible to use jury courts has not been made by the
state.
Perhaps the most saddening aspect of the Guerin case has been
the effort made by the Gardaí and the state to secure
convictions. It was only after Guerin was shot dead that such
efforts were made. Why was the criminal business of Gilligan,
Bowden, Holland, Meehan, Warren, Traynor and Ward not detected
before Guerin's death.
John Gilligan had a criminal record that began in 1967 and
involved 16 previous convictions to the ones for which he was
incarcerated last week. He built one of the largest stud farms in
the state without raising Garda suspicions about how he did it.
Surely this would have merited an investigation? For some still
unexplained reason it didn't.
There are a range of questions that should have been asked of
the Gardaí in the aftermath of the Guerin case. Instead,
they have been congratulating themselves and basking in the
appreciation of politicians such as Bertie Ahern, who paid
tribute to their ``outstanding and dedicated work''.
We need less appreciation and more investigation. We don't
need to live in the Gardaí's tabloid world of `criminal
gangs' with `ruthless bosses', `crime lords' with names culled
from episodes of Batman.
The Guerin convictions were secured in haste, by dubious
methods and though everyone wants to see the perpetrators
convicted, it is only right that it should happen by due process
and not by means of a twisted and distorted legal system that
creates more problems than it resolves.
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