A Garda officer in charge of the Veronica Guerin murder investigation told the High Court yesterday they had discovered the investigation headquarters at Lucan Garda station had been "bugged". Assistant Commissioner Tony Hickey said that in relation to the Guerin case, which had its headquarters at Lucan Garda station, they had had intelligence reports there was "eavesdropping".
He told Mr Justice Kinlen that "sweeps" were made for bugging devices in the offices of Garda headquarters, the Criminal Assets Bureau and Lucan Garda station. Someone before the courts at the moment was discovered with a sophisticated bugging device and the focus had been the incident room at Lucan.
Mr Hickey was giving evidence in the action taken by the solicitors' firm of Michael E. Hanahoe and Co which wants the court to quash decisions made by District Judge Gillian Hussey at Kilmainham Court last October 3rd granting search warrants to gardai.
They removed files relating to property transactions on behalf of Mr John Gilligan and his wife, Geraldine, who are the subjects of an investigation into alleged drug trafficking and money-laundering operations. An earlier court hearing was told some members of the media were aware of the search and were outside the firm's offices when the gardai arrived.
Mr Hickey said yesterday he presided at a conference of senior Garda officers on September 30th last to review investigations into alleged money-laundering and drug-trafficking in relation to Mr John Gilligan.
They also discussed the strategy to be adopted in relation to a proposed search of the solicitors' offices.
He said the meeting also discussed two sections of the Criminal Justice Act, 1994. Section 63 gave the Garda power to seek a court order that certain named persons produce documents to gardai. Section 64 gave the Garda power to ask the court for a search warrant.
Before the arrival at the meeting of Mr Barry Galvin, the solicitor for the then newly-formed Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB), the consensus had been that seeking a search warrant was the way forward.
Mr Galvin spoke about a meeting he had had with officers of the Law Society and in particular about a situation that might arise if gardai arrived at a solicitor's office with a production order.
Mr Galvin had said the Law Society's advice to its members was that they advise their client of the order and that might result in an application to the courts.
The September 30th meeting came to the conclusion that immediate access was vital in this case, continued Mr Hickey.
Part of the discussion had concerned the calibre of people the gardai were dealing with and in particular Mr John Gilligan and his associates.
Investigations had revealed that Mr Gilligan and his associates were ruthless people and that Mr Gilligan had threatened to shoot anybody whom he thought was going to get in his way.
The meeting's concern was that in the event of Mr Gilligan having knowledge of what they were trying to do he would do anything to frustrate those attempts. The consensus was to seek search warrants.
Mr Hickey said he learned of the visit to the solicitors' offices between 4 p.m. and 5 p.m. on October 3rd while in the incident room at Lucan.
Later he learned that the media had been present when the search took place. He was furious.
He spoke that evening and on several occasions during the succeeding days with two other officers and had a meeting with Deputy Commissioner Noel Conroy, who was equally concerned.
They could have asked for a formal inquiry but the option decided upon was an informal inquiry. Formal inquiries in the past into media leaks had proved pretty unsuccessful. Such inquiries made people defensive.
In relation to formal inquiries in which he himself had been involved, when journalists were approached they would not co-operate. Journalists had no hesitation in telling gardai they would not reveal their sources.
On other occasions when leaks occurred and no formal investigations had been directed, Mr Hickey said he had been successful.
In relation to the media leak in the current case gardai had not closed their file.
Mr George Bermingham, counsel for the State, said that three hypotheses had been put forward in relation to the leak: one was a Garda leak; a second that there was a leak through inadvertence; and a third was eavesdropping.
The hearing continues today.