A former soldier who is a State witness in cases against Mr John Gilligan and others will not be charged in connection with the murder of journalist Ms Veronica Guerin, a court was told yesterday.
Charles Bowden affirmed guilty pleas to drugs and firearms charges and he is scheduled for sentence on October 8th. His life is in constant danger and he will never live a normal life again because he helped gardai break up a major criminal organisation whose ruthless leaders were prepared to kill anyone who crossed them, Dublin Circuit Criminal Court was told.
The State's first witness protection programme has been set up to safeguard Bowden. He is kept under armed guard in custody for 23 hours a day, his food is specially prepared and he is moved from cell to cell daily. He has only one hour's television viewing and one hour's heavily-guarded exercise daily.
"He will attempt to vanish off the face of the earth when he comes out of prison," Mr Paul O'Higgins SC, for the defence, told Judge Cyril Kelly.
Det Insp John O'Mahony said Bowden's co-operation with the gardai was carried out in the full knowledge of the serious risk to his own life and without any deal being offered to him.
Prosecuting counsel, Mr Peter Charleton SC, revealed that the Director of Public Prosecutions had made "an irrevocable decision" not to prosecute Bowden in connection with the murder of Ms Guerin, on the basis of statements made by him up to now, future statements, or of any evidence he might give in proceedings against others.
Mr Charleton said this decision had been communicated in writing to Bowden's legal advisers. It applied also to any verbal statements he might have made.
Yesterday's hearing was attended by Mr James Guerin, a brother of Ms Guerin.
Det Insp O'Mahony, National Bureau of Crime Investigation, said Bowden was arrested at his home on October 5th, 1996, on suspicion of being in possession of information about firearms at the junction of Naas Road and Boot Road on June 26th, 1996, the day Ms Guerin was murdered.
At first he exercised his right to silence or gave answers which were not candid. But, by 9 p.m. that evening he admitted being a member of a gang which imported a huge amount of cannabis into Ireland from the Netherlands via Cork.
It was found the gang imported 33 shipments totalling 9,994kg of cannabis from November 1995 to October 1996. The cannabis was supplied by the leader of the gang to five others at £2,000 a kilo. They sold it on for between £2,100 and £2,250 a kilo and divided the profits between them.
Bowden (32), of The Paddocks, Navan Road, Dublin, affirmed signed District Court pleas to nine charges relating to drug dealing and possession of guns.
He pleaded guilty to five charges of having cannabis for sale or supply at a rented lock-up premises in Greenmount Industrial Estate, Harold's Cross, on dates from November 10th, 1995 to October 3rd, 1996.
He also admitted unlawful possession of cannabis and cocaine on or about October 3rd to 5th, at Greenmount Industrial Estate and at his home and to having guns and ammunition at the Old Court Road, Tallaght, between November 10th, 1995 and October 3rd, 1996, with the intention of enabling another person or persons to endanger life.
The cache consisted of one 9mm Parabellum calibre Sten submachine-gun, one 9mm Parabellum calibre Agram 2000 machine pistol, five 9mm Kurz calibre Walther semi-automatic pistols, 949 rounds 9mm ammunition, 56 rounds .357 inch Magnum ammunition, 33 rounds 7.65mm ammunition, and 19 rounds of 6.35mm ammunition.
After a three-hour hearing amid the tightest security seen in an Irish court, Judge Kelly said he would reserve his judgment as he needed time to consider international case law on sentencing offenders who agreed to give evidence against their accomplices and leaders.
Bowden appeared in court wearing a bullet-proof jacket, surrounded by a large force of armed gardai in flak jackets. Sniffer dogs checked the Four Courts before the case began and everyone entering the court room was checked with a security scanner.
Det Insp O'Mahony said Bowden's "full and total co-operation" was out of genuine remorse and revulsion for the events he had been involved in.
He said gardai took threats against Bowden's life seriously. His house was destroyed by fire on the night after a telephone threat was made. His separated wife, with whom he is on good terms, their three children, and his girlfriend are all under 24-hour armed protection.
"The more threats that are made against him, the more he is determined to give evidence against members of the gang," said Det Insp O'Mahony.
Det Insp O'Mahony said Bowden became involved due to financial difficulties and became an important member of the criminal organisation. He was unknown to the gardai before his arrest and this made him valuable.
The gang used Bowden's Army expertise to clean and store guns which came sometimes with cannabis shipments. He also stored and distributed cannabis for it.
The organisation was run with ruthless discipline and the leaders were prepared to shoot anyone who stepped out of line. Bowden found himself trapped for fear of his life and gardai believed he would not have used the guns himself to shoot anyone.
Det Insp O'Mahony said there were two others higher up in the gang hierarchy between him and the leader, whom Bowden was unaware of until the time of Ms Guerin's murder. Until then he thought the organisation was controlled by the person he became involved through.
He met the leader some time after first hearing his name when he handed money to him in Dublin. He also revealed that on another occasion he handed £250,000 to another gang-member who was taking it to the leader.
Det Insp O'Mahony said gardai were unaware the gang was stockpiling what he called "a lethal arsenal" until Bowden brought them to the Jewish graveyard at Old Court Road where the guns and ammunition were concealed under a slabstone over a particular grave.
The guns were imported and delivered with cannabis consignments. Some were new and some second-hand.
Bowden also took gardai to an apartment at Mespil Road where he had concealed almost £100,000 he made from his drug dealing. He revealed he had being earning up to £3,000 a week for almost a year. Gardai recovered £49,700 and £41,088 sterling in a holdall.
"He has now turned his back on this money and doesn't want anything to do with his earnings from drug distribution," said Det Insp O'Mahony. The money will be seized by the State without opposition, the court was told.
Det Insp O'Mahony said gardai discovered the Greenmount Industrial Estate lock-up premises independently of Bowden. They recovered 47.846kg of cannabis along with 26 packing boxes, sufficient to hold almost 1,000kg. There were also blank 10-year driving licences, weighing scales and other drugs-related paraphernalia.
When asked about it, Bowden said it had been on his mind and he regretted not admitting his involvement with it. Bowden added he was on the point of telling them about it when they drove near it a day earlier. He admitted renting the lock-up with a £500 payment under the name "Paul Conroy".
Det Insp O'Mahony said the ring's operation was well-organised and controlled by one person. The leader and his main lieutenants were always two steps away from possession of the cannabis which was imported by a shipping agent in Cork and then taken to Dublin by a courier in a white van.
Bowden and another gang-member met the courier at a hotel on the Naas Road, drove the van to the Harold's Cross warehouse, stored the consignment, and took the van back to the courier. The cannabis was divided into orders provided from the gang leaders and distributed mainly in Dublin.
The Sten sub-machine-gun had a silenced barrel and could be used for both automatic and semiautomatic firing. It was for close-quarter to medium-range use and was capable of firing 500 rounds per minute.
Det Insp O'Mahony said the Agram machine-pistol was also designed for close-quarter range and could fire 1,000 to 1,100 rounds a minute. It was compact and could be easily concealed. The five pistols had silencers fitted and had four spare magazines. They were also ideal covert weapons. Most of the ammunition recovered was for the Sten submachine-gun.
Finding the 56 rounds of .357 inch magnum ammunition had greatly helped Garda investigations in relation to other serious offences which were still under investigation. It was unusual ammunition consisting of expended shells which had been reloaded and crafted with the bullets squashed back into them.
Bowden told gardai that sometime in January 1996 a .357 Magnum with that ammunition, and a sub-machine-gun, arrived from Cork with a cannabis consignment.
Shortly before the Guerin murder, he was told to hand out two guns to a man for passing to "politicals", meaning the INLA or IRA. He was told this was "to keep them sweet and off our back". One of the guns handed over was a Browning with a faulty spring.
On another occasion in 1996, he cleaned and supplied a gun used in a non-fatal shooting of a Dublin man by a leading member of the gang.
Det Insp O'Mahony agreed with Mr O'Higgins there was little likelihood of Bowden ever re-offending. Once he had become involved with the gang, he could not get out. He told gardai that "if a certain person hears I have ratted, I'm in danger".
There had been stories about "contracts" on his life but despite this he was determined to give evidence in forthcoming trials.
Mr O'Higgins said that once Bowden had conquered his "real fear for his life" he had given a unique level of co-operation to the authorities. He could never again have a normal existence. His prospects were "gloomy and distressing".
Bowden could not even go to Mass in prison for security reasons or see his children regularly now for fear for their safety. He had decided to repay his debt to society by protecting society from "these dangerous people", said counsel.
Mr O'Higgins urged Judge Kelly not to impose such a sentence as would deter others from co-operating in the same way. People were needed from the heart of major criminal organisations to provide the evidence to deal with those who ran them at arm's length.
Earlier, Det Insp O'Mahony said Bowden was originally from Casement Park, Finglas West. He was one of a family of seven brothers and four sisters. After secondary school he worked in various companies and then joined the Army where he had a distinguished career, rising to the rank of corporal.