Two gardai knew Bowden lied, says Holland

Two senior gardai knew protected witness Charles Bowden had lied about important evidence given in the trial of Patrick Holland but failed to disclose this prior to Holland's appeal against his conviction on drug charges, it was claimed yesterday during a High Court inquiry into the legality of Holland's detention.

Prior to his trial, gardai had also failed to give his lawyers part of a Garda forensic report which, Holland said, would have enabled him to challenge crucial aspects of Bowden's evidence concerning who had authored handwritten lists which purported to show Holland had received drugs.

The non-disclosure of the report, various statements and other material, combined with other factors, including the failure to tape-record his interviews with gardai and the arrest of his then solicitor, Mr James Orange, on April 9th, 1997 just hours after Holland himself was arrested, all meant he had not received a fair trial, he said.

"I didn't get a trial fair as fair, my solicitor was arrested, a second solicitor wasn't let in, they would not tape my interviews for security reasons."

He had returned to Ireland in April 1997 believing any interviews with gardai would be taped. When he found they would not, he had placed a bug in his shoe but gardai located that. He was supposed to have admitted doing drugs but this was "crazy".

He added that, when his appeal against conviction was heard, he was not then aware of the statements made by Charles Bowden which, Holland said, contradicted evidence given by Bowden in Holland's trial. Neither was he aware of other statements which would have supported his claim that the arrest of his solicitor was not a coincidence.

Holland told Mr Justice Murphy he only became aware of the alleged non-disclosure of the Garda forensic report and certain statements made by Bowden when he read the book of evidence compiled for the trial of Mr John Gilligan, who is charged with the murder of journalist Veronica Guerin. He also became aware of other material only after reading statements compiled in the trial of Brian Meehan, who is serving a life sentence for Ms Guerin's murder.

Representing himself, Holland was making submissions during an inquiry, under Article 40 of the Constitution, into the legality of his detention in Portlaoise prison. Holland is serving a 12-year sentence for possession of cannabis resin for sale and supply. He had been sentenced to 20 years imprisonment on that charge in late 1997 but the sentence was reduced to 12 years by the Court of Criminal Appeal.

The hearing of the Article 40 inquiry concluded yesterday. When Mr Justice Murphy said he would reserve his ruling, Holland became upset and asked for an early ruling. He said a person close to him was dying and he had represented himself to bring the inquiry on more quickly.