A journalist has claimed at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court that a man accused of threatening to kill him told him: "You will be meeting Veronica Guerin."
James Walsh (46), Mountain View Drive, Churchtown, Dublin, has pleaded not guilty to threatening to kill Paul Williams, the crime editor of the Sunday World, on June 25th, 2003, and also threatening to cause him serious harm later the same day.
Williams told Dominic McGinn, prosecuting, that he wanted to interview Mr Walsh about a story he was researching and made a number of attempts to speak to him before he finally made contact on June 20th, 2003.
On June 24th an abusive message was left on his phone by a voice he recognised as the accused's.
Williams said he then received a call on the morning of June 25th from a voice he identified as Mr Walsh's. He said he was told: "If you write anything about me in the Sunday World, you will be meeting Veronica Guerin and I mean that." Williams said the threat was repeated by the caller.
He took this to mean "that he was going to have me murdered". He contacted gardaí and then received another phone call from the same voice which said: "I've just been pulled in by your mate [ Det Garda] Joe O'Hara and you won't be walking around much longer."
Williams said he was in his office on June 27th when he was "totally surprised" to receive an internal e-mail saying that Mr Walsh wanted to speak to him. He returned the call and had a calm conversation with Mr Walsh in which Mr Walsh denied all knowledge of the threats.
They arranged a meeting for the following day in the Sunday World offices but Mr Walsh did not turn up. Williams said he was "very distressed" and "in a heightened state of alert" as a result of the threats.
The trial continues before Judge Desmond Hogan.