BACKGROUND: James Livingstone claimed gardaí developed "an irrational fixation" that he murdered his wife, writes Alison Healy.
EVEN BY today's standards, the murder of Grace Livingstone more than 15 years ago was a very brutal act.
The 56-year-old mother-of-two was found face down on her bed in her Malahide home. Her feet and hands had been bound and her mouth was gagged with adhesive tape. She had been shot in the back of the head by a gun owned by her husband James Livingstone.
He was a keen outdoor sports enthusiast and owned eight guns. There was no sign of a burglary and no apparent motive was uncovered for the killing. No one was ever prosecuted for the murder.
From early on, Mr Livingstone said he believed the murder related to his work as a Revenue senior tax inspector. He was involved in two major anti-tax evasion projects at the time of his wife's death. One involved oil smuggling while the other related to bogus non-resident accounts. He gave gardaí a list of suspects, including some people living in Border areas.
Mr Livingstone claimed that gardaí instead developed "an irrational fixation" that he was the murderer. His action against the State opened last week before Mr Justice John MacMenamin in a building in Clonskeagh which was previously used for the Morris tribunal hearings.
His senior counsel John Rogers said the Garda fixation on Mr Livingstone had "blighted" the murder investigation.
He said his client was "pilloried" as a murderer, was wrongly arrested three months after the murder and was abused while detained. His client had never recovered from the experience and might never do so.
Mr Justice Mac Menamin heard that Mr Livingstone's son Conor only learned about his mother's death when he walked past Malahide Garda station on his way home from work late on the day of the murder and bumped into a relative who was waiting for James Livingstone.
Conor, then 20, lived at home with his parents, while his sister Tara, then 22, was living in France. The court also heard claims that gardaí told Mr Livingstone that his son was on drugs, his daughter was "a whore in France" and he was a "failure" at work.
These claims related to an arrest of Mr Livingstone in March 1993 in connection with the possession of unlicensed firearms. Four of his guns were not licensed and he was subsequently fined for possessing an unlicensed firearm.
The early days of the hearing were dominated by Mr Rogers' opening statement so the State defence to all Mr Livingstone's claims had not been heard when the case was settled yesterday. However, preliminary hearings were told that gardaí would deny that Mr Livingstone fully assisted them in their investigations and would deny that they ought to have reasonably known that he had no part in his wife's murder.
And on Tuesday, Shane Murphy SC, for the Attorney General, said there was no precedent for Garda officers to have "a duty of care" as argued by Mr Livingstone.
While much of the evidence was in Mr Livingstone's favour, the court heard a claim that he had once pointed a gun at a colleague and told him he wouldn't hesitate to use it.
The court also heard that Mr Livingstone walked into Malahide Garda station to show that he had the RSI numbers and addresses of three gardaí involved in the murder investigation.
Mr Rogers said his client regretted this action but he believed he was under unwarranted pressure at the time.
Speaking outside the court yesterday, Mr Livingstone said "this has been a long, long haul for all of us". He said it had finally been established after 15 years that he was not a suspect for his wife's murder.
"Those who heard the evidence over the past days will know what this family has suffered," he said. He praised his solicitor Gerry Charlton "who was there in the dark days, 1992 and 1993, and they were dark days, and has been with us ever since. For now we would like to be given time to reflect on our cloud-free situation - the first time the clouds are gone."
Tara Beauchamp said she and her brother Conor were "delighted that this ordeal is finally over and that we feel justice has been done".
Asked if this was the end of the matter, James Livingstone shook his head.
"Someone should go and find who killed Grace," he said. "That's still unsolved."