Protected witness John Dunne told the Special Criminal Court today that "pure greed" motivated him to work for Mr John Gilligan, the man accused of murdering Veronica Guerin.
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John Gilligan
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Dunne said that he was paid £1,000 by Mr Gilligan for arranging the transport of shipments of boxes from Holland to Ireland. He also told the court that ten counts of illegally importing cannabis resin to which he pleaded guilty in 1999 referred to these consignments.
Dunne(44)is currently serving a three years jail sentence and is in the Witness Protection Programme at Arbour Hill prison in Dublin. The former operations manager of Seabridge, an international freight company based in Cork, pointed out Mr Gilligan in court as the man who had arranged for the shipments.
He also told the court that he and other protected witnesses had "waged a war" against the Department of Justice in order to get an early release but so far had been unsuccessful.
He told the court that he met Mr Gilligan on "no more than six occasions" between early 1994 and October, 1996. He said he also received phone calls from Mr Gilligan and another man he knew as "Joe" and whom he now knows to be Brian Meehan, on the Friday before each shipment arrived from Holland. Meehan is currently serving a life sentence for the Guerin murder.
Under cross-examination by Mr Gilligan's counsel, Mr Michael O'Higgins SC, Dunne admitted that he had a well paid job with Seabridge. He said it was "pure greed" that made him agree to arrange the importation of contraband. "£1,000 seemed attractive at time," he added.
Dunne told Mr O'Higgins that he believed he made about £40,000 from his illegal activities but Mr O'Higgins siad there were 96 consignments in all between 1994 and 1996 and that Dunne said he was paid on average £1,000 for each consignment.
Dunne also said that he had spent the money and "had a good life" from the money. He said there was £30,000 in his bank account when he was arrested by the gardai in 1996.
He said he had personally delivered the boxes which arrived from Holland to the Ambassador Hotel in Co Kildare from early 1994 until July 1995 and after that they were delivered by a driver who worked for Seabridge and who had no idea what was in the shipments.
Dunne told Mr O'Higgins that he had taken a habeas corpus application in the High Court last year because he wanted to get early release. He said he had written to the Department of Justice many times and had not once received a reply.
He said that the other protected witnesses Charles Bowden and Russell Warren had also taken habeas corpus actions against the Department.
"We have certainly waged war on the Department of Justice because we feel we have matched the criteria required to get early release," he said.
It was the twelfth day of the trial of John Gilligan (48) who has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Sunday Independent crime reporter Veronica Guerin(37) at Naas Road, Clondalkin, Dublin on June 26th, 1996.
Mr Gilligan also denies fifteen other counts alleging the importation of cannabis and firearms and ammunition offences.