The girlfriend of the man accused of murdering Veronica Guerin wept yesterday as she told the Special Criminal Court she was "threatened" by gardai during interrogation.
Ms Vanessa Meehan said the accused, Mr Paul Ward, was at home with her all day on June 26th, 1996, the day Ms Guerin was murdered. She said no one had called to the house that day and she had not seen men with either a motorbike or gun. Ms Meehan said that after her arrest she was interrogated by gardai at Ballyfermot and Lucan Garda stations.
Ms Meehan said: "I was very upset. I was crying. One of the detectives said: `You are going to be charged now. If you don't change your statement you are going to be done.' " She said the gardai told her she would be charged with being an accessory to the Guerin murder.
Mr Paul "Hippo" Ward (34), a native of Crumlin, Dublin with an address at Walkinstown Road, Dublin has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Veronica Guerin at Naas Road, Clondalkin, Co Dublin on June 26th, 1996. The prosecution has claimed that Ward was a member of the gang that planned and carried out the killing and that he disposed of the murder weapon and the motorcycle afterwards when the killers called to his house.
Ms Meehan said she was arrested on October 16th, 1996 - the same day as Mr Ward. She said gardai told her what to say and told her to change her statement as to what time she had left Mr Ward's bungalow on the day of the murder. Ms Meehan said she had changed her statement to say she had left the house at 10 or 11 a.m. but she told Mr Ward's counsel, Mr Patrick MacEntee SC, that she had not left the house until the evening and that no one had called that day. She denied that the killers had arrived at the bungalow and had left the gun and the motorbike used in the murder for Mr Ward to dispose of.
She said she thought her boyfriend was making a living at the time by selling cigarettes and tobacco and agreed with Mr MacEntee that Mr Ward was "rich". Ms Meehan said gardai detained her for 48 hours. "They were very aggressive towards me and they were screaming at me that I was lying. They were threatening me. I was very confused and very frightened."
Ms Meehan said she was brought to Lucan Garda station where gardai told her to ask Paul where the gun was. " `If you ask him that we'll let you go home and we'll let Paul go home.' I was more concerned about myself. I just wanted to get out of the police station."
She said she heard a commotion outside and could see Paul. She broke down as she said: "They were screaming at him to go into the room and Paul wouldn't go into the room. I was crying and I called out to Paul to come in. I was very upset. I was asking him to tell them where the gun was so that I could go home. He said he had nothing to do with it."
She said that on the day of the murder she and Paul had stayed at their bungalow in Walkinstown Road and she had not left until that evening to visit her mother. Asked by Mr MacEntee if she was still in love with Mr Ward, Ms Meehan replied: "Yeah." Cross-examined by prosecuting counsel Mr Eamonn Leahy SC, Ms Meehan said she had suspected that Mr Ward was selling hash. She agreed with Mr Leahy that there was never any shortage of money. She told counsel that the most money she had seen around the house was £15,000 to £20,000. She also said that Mr Ward had bought her a car for £10,000 and that in 1996 she had been on three foreign holidays with him. Ms Meehan said she had read a newspaper article about an assault case being taken by Ms Guerin against a man who has been named in court as the drugs gang leader. She remembered Mr Ward telling her that Ms Guerin had trespassed on the gang leader's property but she could not remember the case being discussed on holiday by Mr Ward and other gang members. Asked by Mr Leahy about the murder, Ms Meehan said: "I was shocked. I thought it was terrible. I was shocked but I didn't connect it with Paul or anything like that." She remembered asking Mr Ward if he had anything to do with the murder and he told her: "Sure I'd be mad to do that."
At the end of cross-examination Mr Leahy put it to Ms Meehan that her evidence assisted Mr Ward in relation to the charge. Ms Meehan replied: "It does assist him but it's the truth."
The trial continues today.