Paul Ward's conviction for the murder of Veronica Guerin may have been overturned, but his close association with the gang responsible is in no doubt.
The 37-year-old, from Crumlin, Dublin, was accused by Charles Bowden, the State's first "supergrass", of disposing of the motorcycle and .357 Magnum used to kill the journalist.
Bowden and Ward were members of the same gang that was headed by John Gilligan, the convicted drug-trafficker against whom Ms Guerin had pressed assault charges after a confrontation at his Co Kildare home.
Bowden, a former prize-winning military marksman, claimed that certain gang members were afraid the case would interrupt their criminal activities, and agreed to dispose of Ms Guerin.
Bowden, who was given immunity from prosecution for his role in the murder, admitted to cleaning the murder weapon, loading it and preparing a spare set of bullets.
His evidence helped to convict not only Ward but another gang member, Brian Meehan, for the journalist's murder. Both received life sentences.
Bowden also testified against Gilligan who in March 2001 was sentenced to 28 years for drug-trafficking but was acquitted of the murder of Ms Guerin.
Ward, from Crumlin, Dublin, received his first criminal conviction at the age of 15 when the Children's Court gave him the probation order for malicious damage.
He would receive 24 more convictions, including two four-year sentences for theft, before his arrest for the murder of Ms Guerin.
While on remand in Mountjoy Prison in January 1997, he participated in a siege which left several prison officers injured.
The Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard Ward carried a blood-filled syringe and threatened to hang prison officers unless he was given chocolate.
In July 1999 he was sentenced to 12 years for his part in the riot.
During his 1998 trial for the murder of Ms Guerin, Ward told the Special Criminal Court how in one year he collected up to £3 million in cash for Gilligan, earning for himself about £300,000.
The gang traded mainly in cannabis and contraband cigarettes, and Ward's job was to meet clients or their couriers in the car-park of one of two pubs near his home on Walkinstown Avenue.
Bowden, meanwhile, acted as the gang's arms expert. Born in Finglas, Dublin, he served in the Army for six years in the 1980s before being discharged over an alleged assault.
He described in the various court cases how gang members were earning up to £7,000 a week through cannabis sales, and how they took holidays together with their girlfriends in Spain and the Caribbean.
In the Special Criminal Court last year Mr Justice O'Donovan found that Gilligan was "the largest beneficiary and was the supreme authority among the members of the gang".
Now aged 39, Bowden was released from prison a year ago after being convicted of drugs and firearms offences.
He was given a new identity by gardaí and is now living abroad.
