The wife of a member of the drugs gang allegedly behind the murder of Veronica Guerin told the Special Criminal Court yesterday that her husband told her the journalist was going to be "threatened" for her articles about the gang's leader.
Mrs Juliet Bowden said her husband Charles told her the leader of the gang, whom he referred to as "the Little Man", was going to threaten Ms Guerin but Mrs Bowden did not know she was going to be shot.
Mrs Bowden, formerly Bacon, said her husband told her the Provos would probably be involved in threatening the Sunday Independent crime reporter.
The witness, who is currently in the Witness Protection Programme, told the court she married Charles Bowden, who is serving a six-year sentence for drugs and firearms offences, last July. She also admitted she had helped count tens of thousands of pounds, the proceeds of drug-dealing, from their home on Blackhorse Avenue, Dublin.
She was giving evidence on the eighth day of the trial of Mr Brian Meehan (34) who has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Ms Guerin at Naas Road, Clondalkin, Dublin, on June 26th, 1996. Mr Meehan also denies 16 other charges alleging that he unlawfully imported cannabis resin into the State on various dates between July 1st, 1994 and October 6th, 1996, 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 sub-machine-gun, silencer 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.
Mrs Bowden told prosecuting counsel Mr Tom O'Connell that she first met Charles
Bowden in August 1994. They shared a flat in Ballymun before buying a house at The Paddocks on Blackhorse Avenue for £77,000 in October, 1995. Bowden had bought a hairdresser's shop, Clips, in Moore Street, and she worked there with two staff. She said that early in 1996, Bowden began to socialise with Mr Brian Meehan, Paul Ward, currently serving a life sentence for the Guerin murder, and a man identified only as Mr C.
She said they were bringing money and discussing drugs and would come to their house two or three times a week. Mrs Bowden said the money was left in the house to be counted and it ranged from sums of £5,000 to £30,000. She said she did not know the source of the money, which, after being counted, was put into plastic bags.
She said Bowden would then bring the money to Mr Meehan's flat. Sometimes they would go to the East Link toll bridge, where Bowden would transfer the money to another man. Mrs Bowden said she did not know what Bowden did for a living, adding: "I knew he was into something shady but I wasn't sure and he wasn't telling me."
She said that on the day of the Guerin murder, she and Bowden went to Clips and she heard the news on the radio about a woman being shot on the Naas Road. "I was quite shocked," she added.
She saw Brian Meehan and another man, Mr E, who walked by the hairdresser's shop and tapped on the window around 1.40 or 1.45 p.m. She did not think Bowden was in the shop at the time. That night she went with Bowden to the Hole in the Wall pub, where they met Mr Meehan and other people and Mr Meehan had a "ruckus" in the men's toilet with a member of the public.
Mrs Bowden said that between the date of the murder and the date of her arrest in October, 1996, she and Bowden continued counting money at their house in The Paddocks and bringing the money to Mr Meehan. She met Mr Meehan before her arrest and he told her he was worried about a photo of him that appeared in the Sunday World. Mrs Bowden said she was shown this photo by the gardai when she was in custody.
Cross-examined by Mr Meehan's counsel, Mr John McCrudden QC, Mrs Bowden denied that she had ever been in the lock-up premises at Harold's Cross where gardai found a large quantity of drugs.
The trial continues today.