Lawyers for Mr Brian Meehan, who is accused of the murder of the journalist Veronica Guerin, yesterday applied to the Special Criminal Court to stop the trial.
Mr Meehan's counsel, Mr John McCrudden QC, submitted that the trial, now in its seventh week, should be stopped because of "an abuse of process".
He said it was unprecedented for three accomplice witnesses who gave evidence for the State, Charles Bowden, Russell Warren and John Dunne, to be incarcerated together and to have mutual interests and concerns.
It was the 25th day of the trial of Mr Brian Meehan (34), of no fixed abode, and formerly of Clifton Court, Dublin, and Stanaway Road, Crumlin, Dublin, who has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Ms Guerin (36), at Naas Road, Clondalkin, Dublin, on June 26th, 1996.
Mr Meehan also denies 16 other charges: that he imported cannabis resin into the State on various dates between 1994 and 1996, that he had cannabis resin for sale or supply on the same dates and that on or about October 3rd, 1996 at Unit 1B, Greenmount Industrial Estate, Harolds Cross, Dublin, he had cannabis resin for sale or supply.
He has also pleaded not guilty to having a Sten sub-machinegun, a silenced barrel, two magazines, a 9mm Agram machine pistol, five Walther semi-automatic pistols, four magazines and 1,057 rounds of assorted ammunition with intent to endanger life at Oldcourt Road, Tallaght, Dublin, between November 10th, 1995, and October 3rd, 1996.
Mr McCrudden submitted that the court had heard evidence that Bowden, Warren and Dunne were incarcerated together and had mutual association.
The three are State witnesses, and each of them is an accomplice witness, he said. He said that where the State elected during a criminal trial to incarcerate such witnesses together and where there was evidence of a memo concerning overnight releases, allied with evidence of repayments to Russell Warren by gardai, it constituted interference with the case and abuse of process.
Mr McCrudden said the case should not proceed any further. He said the three State witnesses were vulnerable to inducement and the prosecution case stood or fell on their evidence.
"It is without precedent to have accomplice witnesses put together in a hothouse atmosphere where they have mutual interests," he added. "No criminal court can risk relying on the evidence of these people in those circumstances," he said.
Prosecuting counsel Mr Peter Charleton SC submitted that there was no intention to put the witnesses together, and this had been done for security reasons.
"These are witnesses who were threatened, whose families and they themselves are in the Witness Protection Programme, and who have to live with the conscience they have in relation to these crimes. All of this combined with the regime they live under gives rise to strain," he said. The court is due to rule on the defence application today.
Earlier Mr Paul Williams told the court he spoke to the leader of the drugs gang behind the Guerin murder two days after she was killed.
Mr Williams, a Sunday World journalist, said he rang a mobile phone number on June 28th, 1996, and spoke to the man, who can only be identified as Mr A. The conversation lasted around 45 minutes.
The journalist said that Mr A called him on his personal mobile phone on July 24th that year from outside the jurisdiction. That call lasted six minutes and 59 seconds. He said he subsequently spoke to Mr A in person and he had no doubt that the person he spoke to on the phone was Mr A.
Ms Liz Allen, a journalist with the Sunday Independent, told the court that she met Mr A on two occasions following the Guerin murder.