A murder trial witness received a death threat just before giving evidence against Mr Joseph Delaney, a jury heard yesterday.
Ms Adrienne McGuinness (28) told the Central Criminal Court a man had been sent to "get rid" of her so she would not turn up for the trial. She said: "I fear for myself and my daughter, even though he is behind bars. I know what he is capable of."
Ms McGuinness told the jury she had feared Mr Delaney enough to want to commit suicide after the murder of Mark Dwyer, refusing until recently to come forward with evidence to the gardai. She said: "I tried to slit my wrists because of the pressure . . . I'd rather kill myself than have any of them kill me." Mr Delaney (53), formerly of La Rochelle, Naas, Co Kildare, has pleaded not guilty to the charge that he, with his son Scott Delaney, then 22, murdered Mark Dwyer (23) on or about December 14th, 1996. Mr Delaney has also denied that on December 14th, 1996 at Foster Terrace, Ballybough, Dublin, he falsely imprisoned Mark Dwyer.
Mr Dwyer was Mr Delaney's main suspect after 40,000 ecstasy tablets, part of a drugs deal from Amsterdam, were stolen from him, the court heard.
Giving evidence, Ms McGuinness said that on the night Mr Dwyer was murdered he was tortured in another room for "three hours that felt like days" with a claw bar, while music played to drown out his screaming.
She said three masked men accompanied Mr Delaney and that occasionally he would come from the room where Mr Dwyer was being tortured and snort cocaine and drink whiskey, only to return to the bedroom and the "horrifying" screams would continue. She said she later heard Mr Delaney say it was all over, that "the little bastard is dead". Ms McGuinness said: "I knew then he was after shooting Mark".
Describing Mr Delaney's actions after the beatings, she said he had cut away a section of blood-soaked cream carpet in the bedroom where Mr Dwyer had been attacked and put it in the boot of her car. She said he then forced her to drive for 15 minutes before dumping the carpet in a ditch. He then told her to drive to a local fast-food restaurant where he ate breakfast.
Ms McGuinness said Mr Delaney offered her £10,000 and a car to offer an alibi for him, to say they had been having an affair and were together on the night in question. She agreed to the "alibi story" because she was "terrified" she would be murdered after hearing Scott Delaney say: "We're going to have to have to get rid of her too."
She never told anyone in 18 months what she had been through and had wanted to clear her conscience. She said she refused the money and the car as it would have meant "digging a deeper hole for myself" and she was glad she had told the truth.
Ms McGuinness was staying at Mr Delaney's house in Naas at the time of Mr Dwyer's murder because she said she had received a death threat from the INLA over her alleged drug associations. She said she had been given seven days to leave the country and that Delaney had offered her somewhere to stay, knowing what would take place and that he planned to use her as an alibi.
Cross-examined by Mr Blaise O'Carroll SC, defending, Ms McGuinness denied she had been in a relationship with the accused, saying he was "lying through his teeth".
The trial continues today before Mr Justice Barr and the jury.