'Bombshell' Veronica Guerin evidence falls flat

The Sunday World 'World Exclusive' claim of "bombshell" evidence that proves Patrick Holland murdered Veronica Guerin is insignificant. By Vincent Browne

'Guilty' screamed the headline of the Sunday World on 9 April in a "World Exclusive". "We reveal the evidence that proves Dutch Holland murdered Veronica Guerin", it asserted in large print. Its crime correspondent, Paul Williams, wrote: "The Sunday World has uncovered bombshell evidence that proves Patrick Dutchy Holland DID murder Veronica Guerin".

But the "bombshell evidence" goes no where near substantiating the claim that Patrick Holland murdered Veronica Guerin and the "World Exclusive" "bombshell" had been reported previously, notably in the book Gangsters by another crime correspondent, John Mooney.

The "evidence" was as follows:

·Gardaí claimed Carol Rooney, the then alleged mistress of John Gilligan, said under interrogation that Patrick Holland was present with several others when the murder of Veronica Guerin was discussed.

·Gardai claimed Carol Rooney also said under interrogation that within hours of the murder of Veronica Guerin, she overheard a telephone conversation between John Gilligan and Patrick Holland during which she claimed Holland gave Gilligan "a full account" of the murder of Veronica Guerin and Gilligan said: "I hear you put a smile on her face".

·Gardai claimed Carol Rooney also said under interrogation that Patrick Holland advised her: "Get yourself a new boyfriend, forget about John (Gilligan) and forget about everything you've seen and heard and everyone will be all right" – this "threat" allegedly was made after Gilligan had said she would be murdered if she ever spoke of Veronica Guerin's murder.

Carol Rooney allegedly refused to give evidence against Patrick Holland, John Gilligan and the others suspected of the murder of Veronica Guerin even though she had allegedly made a comprehensive statement to Gardai claiming she had been present during several meetings when the murder was discussed; that he witnessed several members, allegedly of John Gilligan's gang, handle cash and guns; and had overheard several conversations to do with illegal drug importations, distribution and sale. The claim is she was afraid to give evidence on the grounds she would be murdered were she to do so.

However there might have been other reasons why she was not obliged to give evidence. It may be because it was feared she would testify that her "statement" was false and had been concocted by gardaí. Alternatively, it may have been feared she would claim in evidence that while she did sign the statement, the facts alleged in the statement were false, and she had signed the statement under pressure, having been threatened with prosecution herself in connection either with the murder of the drugs offences or pressure of some other kind.

There may also have been the difficulty that Carol Rooney may have been regarded as an accomplice to the murder of Veronica Guerin, since, allegedly, in her own statement she acknowledges she was present during discussions that planned the murder. If that were so, then Patrick Holland could hardly have been convicted on the basis of her evidence (even if she did give evidence against him) without corroboration and there is no trace of corroborative evidence.

It will be argued that one of the "supergrasses" in several of the cases arising from the murder of Veronica Guerin, Charles Bowden, had evidence of Patrick Holland being the murderer. However, according to an account of the statement he gave to Gardaí, reproduced in Gangsters (page 181), while Bowden does state Patrick Holland murdered Veronica Guerin, he gives no indication in the reproduced statement that he had direct evidence of this. Neither did he say he gave the murder weapon to Holland or that he had overheard Holland agreeing to murder Veronica Guerin. Neither did he say he witnessed Holland murdering her – Bowden was, apparently, a witness to the murder, for, it is claimed, he trailed Veronica Guerin, from Naas to Newlands Cross outside Dublin, where she was killed in her car while waiting for traffic lights to change.

In her alleged statement to Gardai where she alleged Patrick Holland took part with John Gilligan in discussions in preparation for the murder of Veronica Guerin, she also named John Traynor, Brian Meehan and other "gang members" (ie members of the gang allegedly headed by John Gilligan). Presumably she listed those other gang members to Gardai, for in another part of her alleged statement she is quoted as citing Peter Mitchell, Paul Ward and a Northern drug dealer, Brendan Fegan, as being involved in general discussions.

Curiously, two other alleged "gang members", Russell Warren and Charles Bowden, are not named – these were the two "supergrasses" who gave evidence against Gilligan, Paul Ward and Brian Meehan. Neither of these "supergrasses" as far as we are aware, ever stated Patrick Holland was present at meetings at which the murder of Veronica Guerin was planed.

The claim that Carol Rooney's alleged statement to the Gardai amounts to "bombshell" evidence that establishes the guilt of Patrick Holland for the murder of Veronica Guerin is unsustainable.