The last words of murdered journalist Veronica Guerin were played to the Special Criminal Court yesterday. The court heard a recording of a call made by the Sunday Independent crime reporter to a garda's mobile phone message playback service seconds before she was shot dead by a gunman on a motorcycle.
Ms Guerin was making the call as she returned from Naas court where she had been fined for road traffic offences. The call was made at 12.54 p.m. on June 26th, 1996, as she sat in her car stopped at traffic lights on the Naas Road.
Her 18-second call is interrupted in mid-sentence by a crack, followed by the sound of a mobile phone key being pressed, and then a second crack before the line goes dead. Ms Guerin is heard to say on the call, which was recorded at Eircell headquarters: "I did very well. Ah, fined a maximum of £150. Alt- " followed by an audible crack.
It was the 21st day of the trial of Mr Brian Meehan (34), of no fixed abode, and formerly of Clifton Court, Dublin, and Stanaway Road, Crumlin, Dublin, who has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Ms Guerin, (36) at Naas Road, Clondalkin, Dublin, on June 26th, 1996.
Det Garda Patrick Bane of Lucan Garda Station told the court he knew Ms Guerin for about two years and he identified her voice on the tape of the mobile phone call.
He said the call was made to the message playback of an official Garda phone. Det Insp Jerry O'Connell said the call was recorded at Eircell headquarters.
Det Garda Patrick Kelly said the number Ms Guerin was dialling was a mobile phone number issued to a member of the Special Detective Unit in 1988 and the bill was still being paid by the gardai. He did not identify the person involved.
Mr John McCrudden QC, defending, accepted that Ms Guerin was shot dead at about 12.54 p.m. Det Garda Rory Corcoran of the Special Detective Unit said he arrested Mr Meehan on June 28th, 1996, for driving without insurance and without a licence and took him to the Bridewell.
Mr Meehan said he wanted to talk to him privately and he took him to an interview room. "He offered me vital information in relation to serious crime in Dublin city centre.
"During the course of the conversation I asked him did he know anything of Veronica Guerin which he denied and said everybody wants to know who did that," he added.
Mr Meehan again offered information on serious crime and he wrote down his mobile phone number for the detective on the corner of a cigarette box.
Det Garda Corcoran said they then had a conversation which was confidential and for which he claimed privilege. He rang Mr Meehan's mobile phone on July 3rd, 1996, and asked him if he had come up with any more information about the Guerin shooting.
Mr Meehan said he had not and they had a short conversation.
During Det Garda Corcoran's evidence, Mr Meehan was heard to say from the dock: "That never f***ing happened" and "I didn't f**ing write on it." Cross-examined by Mr McCrudden, Det Garda Corcoran denied he had invented the conversation with Mr Meehan.
Earlier, Det Garda Brendan Howley of the fingerprints section said he found a right thumb mark on a counterfeit driving licence which was among 67 blank licen ces found by gardai at the lock-up in Harold's Cross used by the drugs gang to distribute cannabis. He also found a right thumb mark on a list which was also found in the lock-up.
The two marks matched fingerprints taken from Mr Meehan when he was in custody in Dun Laoghaire Garda station.
Det Garda Howley said he found no fingermarks on guns and ammunition found by gardai at a Jewish cemetery in Tallaght and said the guns appeared to have been cleaned. Mr Meehan also denies 16 other charges of importing cannabis resin between July 1st, 1994, and October 6th, 1996, of possessing cannabis resin for the purpose of sale or supply on the same dates and that on or about October 3rd, 1996, at Unit 1B, Greenmount Industrial Estate, Harold's Cross, Dublin, he had cannabis resin for sale or supply.
He has also pleaded not guilty to having a Sten sub-machine gun, silencer barrel, two magazines, a 9 mm Agram machine pistol, five Walther semi-automatic pistols, four magazines and 1,057 rounds of ammunition with intent to endanger life at Oldcourt Road, Tallaght, Dublin, between November 10th, 1995, and October 3rd, 1996.
The trial continues today.