Gardai can be asked about 'debts'

The Supreme Court has directed the Garda Commissioner or a nominated Garda officer to be orally examined about what debts, if any, are owed by the State to a protected witness, Charles Bowden.

A Dublin criminal, Martin Foley, known as "The Viper", and a former associate of the murdered Dublin gangland figure, Martin Cahill, known as "The General", had sought the information about Bowden's financial arrangements with the State in an attempt to secure payment of a £120,000 damages award, now worth some €193,000 including interest and costs, made to Foley in undefended proceedings against Bowden.

Bowden gave evidence at a number of criminal trials arising from the murder of the journalist Veronica Guerin. He was on the Witness Protection Scheme (WPS) following his decision to give evidence against alleged former associates.

Last year the High Court ruled that Foley (47) was not entitled to an order aimed at establishing what financial arrangements existed between the Garda Síochána and Bowden in connection with the WPS. Mr Justice O'Neill held that such an order would not be in the public interest.

However, Foley appealed that judgment, and yesterday the three-judge Supreme Court found for Foley. The Chief Justice, Mr Justice Keane, said the court would grant an order directing the Garda Commissioner or such person as he might nominate to be orally examined "in order to ascertain what debts, if any, are owed by the State to the defendant (Bowden)".

In his decision, Mr Justice Keane said the facts in the case were not seriously in dispute. Foley had been shot in the finger and lung outside his house in Dublin by an unidentified assailant. Foley had said that Bowden, during Special Criminal Court proceedings in 1999, had admitted under oath that he had provided the weapon and instructed an unidentified person to carry out the attack.

Foley had then taken an action for damages against Bowden and secured judgment, in default of appearance by Bowden, for £120,000. With interest and costs, the sum now due was €192,973.

Mr Justice Keane noted that Bowden was involved in the WPS under which he had been relocated abroad. Foley's lawyers had argued there was a possibility that he was owed sums of money by the State under the WPS, but they had received no information about this from the State.