Lawyers for the man convicted of Veronica Guerin's murder in 1996 claim the court shouldn’t have relied on the evidence of one of the State’s witnesses.
Brian Meehan from Crumlin in Dublin is trying to have his conviction declared a miscarriage of justice because of what he claims is: “critical new evidence”.
Three years after Veronica Guerin was shot dead while sitting in her car on the Naas Road, the Special Criminal Court ruled that Brian Meehan was the driver of a motorbike that carried her killer to the assassination and he was convicted of murder.
The non-jury court relied on the evidence of self-confessed accomplice Russell Warren, who’s now a protected witness.
He said he followed the journalist from Naas District Court and was in constant phone contact with notorious criminal John Gilligan, who was cleared of her murder in 2001.
Warren’s evidence was corroborated by a woman who placed him on the steps of Naas Courthouse that day.
During Gilligan’s trial, it emerged this woman had failed to pick Warren out of an ID parade – something Meehan’s defence claims is a “critical” new fact that wasn’t made available during his trial.
He’s now looking for his conviction to be declared a miscarriage of justice.
