The man named in court as having shot Veronica Guerin almost 10 years ago last night reiterated his denial of involvement in her death.
Patrick "Dutchy" Holland (66), who was released from Portlaoise Prison last weekend, said: "It wasn't me. I didn't do it, and the people that were the witnesses on the Naas Road should be able to describe the person [that did it]. That would help me. That's all I can say - I didn't do it."
Mr Holland, who had served nine years of a 12-year sentence for drugs offences, conceded that he had no alibi for the time of the journalist's murder in June 1996, but said he could not understand why attempts were made to implicate him in the killing.
"I have no alibi for the time of the killing. I can't do anything about that. But I told them. I went into a police station on my own on July 21st and all I can say to you is, if you were involved in something like this and the police were looking for you shortly after it, would you go into a police station on your own? I never consulted a solicitor. I just rang up, made an appointment and went in. And I told them what I'm telling you."
He added that he had no convictions for violence, "not even common assault".
Mr Holland was interviewed by Sky News Ireland from Rome, where his legal adviser, Giovanni di Stefano, is understood to be arranging a lie-detector test for him.
Mr Holland was originally sentenced to 20 years but this was reduced in 1998 to 12 years after he appealed the sentence to the Court of Criminal Appeal. An appeal of his conviction was rejected at that time.
During Mr Holland's trial, Garda Marion Cusack, who arrested him, said she believed that he was the man who shot dead Veronica Guerin in Dublin on June 26th, 1996.