Journalist Veronica Guerin died from multiple bullet wounds after she was shot six times as she sat in her car on the Naas Road, the Special Criminal Court heard yesterday.
The State Pathologist, Dr John Harbison, said Ms Guerin was hit by all six bullets fired into her car and died from shock and haemorrhage as a result of an injury to the right subclavican artery and laceration of both her lungs. He said the fatal wounds were probably caused by the first two shots fired from behind and she appeared to have grappled for her car phone and headed for the passenger side of the car after the first shot.
Dr Harbison was giving evidence on the third day of the resumed trial of Paul Ward (34), a native of Crumlin, Dublin, with an address at Walkinstown Road, Dublin, who has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Ms Guerin (36) on June 26th, 1996.
The prosecution has claimed that while Ward was neither the driver of the motorcycle nor the passenger who fired the shots that killed Ms Guerin, he was a member of the gang that planned and carried out the killing and he disposed of the murder weapon and the motorcycle afterwards.
Dr Harbison said he carried out a post-mortem examination on Ms Guerin's body at the James Connolly Memorial Hospital in Blanchardstown after she was identified by her husband, Mr Graham Turley.
He found eight bullet entry and exit wounds on her body and a number of minor lacerations associated with glass fragments. He also found an old injury on her right thigh, which was a bullet entry wound and resulted from an incident in 1994 when she was shot in her home. He recovered two bullets from her body, one from her right collar bone and one from her left collar bone.
Dr Harbison said one bullet had entered the lower end of her mastoid muscle and her subclavian artery was severely lacerated and torn, and this appeared to be the most serious injury and the principal cause of blood loss. He found a second bullet in her left collar, bone which had been fractured, and this bullet had come from below. There was bleeding in her left lung, and he found half a litre of blood in her left chest cavity and a third of a litre of blood in her left chest cavity.
There was also a laceration to her right lung on the outer surface, and a bullet had passed through the lower lobe of her right lung. A bullet had also passed across her liver, and this was the bullet that injured her right lung. Dr Harbison said he had deduced that the first bullet had struck the glass and would have been deformed and caused a larger wound than the calibre of the bullet.
The trajectory of the bullets suggested that Ms Guerin was going over to her left, but Dr Harbison said he was unable to say if this was due to her falling or trying to evade her attacker. Two of the bullets entered her back, the lowest at the base of the spine. One had passed through the fleshy part of her upper right arm and then entered her breast and went across her chest, following a slightly downward trajectory.
He said the cause of death was shock and haemorrhage caused by multiple bullet wounds, causing lacerations to both her lungs and the artery supplying blood to her right arm.
Insp Padraig Kennedy gave evidence of arresting Ward at Windmill Park in Crumlin on October 16th, 1996, under Section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act on suspicion that he had information relating to the possession of firearms on the Naas Road on June 26th, 1996.
At that stage Mr Barry White SC, defending, said an issue had now arisen concerning the validity and legality of Mr Ward's arrest. Mr White said the issue related to the suspicions of the arresting officer. He also said Mr Ward had been arrested earlier that month for the same offence.
Insp Kennedy said the decision to arrest Mr Ward had been taken on October 9th, 1996, after Mr Charles Bowden, who will be a witness in the case, had made a statement on October 6th implicating Mr Ward in the murder.
He said Mr Ward was taken to an interview room at Lucan Garda station, but the interview was called off after Mr Ward stuffed tissue papers up both his nostrils and caused his nose to bleed slightly. Cross-examined by Mr White, Insp Kennedy said he believed that Mr Ward had met the two people on the motorcycle who had murdered Veronica Guerin at his home on the day of the killing and had helped to dispose of the murder weapon.
He also told Mr White that he made no effort to seize the bloodstained tissue Mr Ward had stuffed up his nostrils because he believed that Mr Ward was a drug addict at the time. Insp Kennedy said he had learned subsequently that Mr Ward had been arrested on October 8th, 1996, and taken to Ronanstown Garda station, but this arrest related to an attempted armed robbery on October 2nd and not to the events on the Naas Road in June 1996.
The trial resumes next Tuesday.