Closing submissions from prosecution and defence lawyers are expected today in the Veronica Guerin murder trial at the Special Criminal Court in Dublin.
A journalist told the court yesterday that State witness Charles Bowden "celebrated" with a "raucous" party at his north Dublin home the night the crime reporter was shot dead.
Mr Paul Ward (34), of Walkinstown Road, Dublin, has pleaded not guilty to the murder of the journalist at the Naas Road, Clondalkin, Co Dublin on June 26th, 1996.
Yesterday Mr Senan Molony, an Evening Herald reporter, said that Bowden, who was his next-door neighbour at the time, did not appear to be "cast down" by the murder.
Cross-examined by prosecuting counsel, Mr Eamonn Leahy SC, Mr Molony said he was of the opinion that Bowden was carrying on his drugs business from his home.
Mr Molony agreed that he himself had been prosecuted for contempt of court for making notes from documents of Mr Garret Sheehan, solicitor, during the Brendan O'Donnell murder trial.
Mr Molony said that he had been kept up to 5 a.m. that morning by the noise from Bowden's house and was not "in his right mind" that day.
When defence counsel Mr Patrick MacEntee objected to the line of questioning being pursued by Mr Leahy, Mr Justice Barr, presiding, said it would be difficult to imagine anything more relevant to the credibility of the witness than Mr Leahy's questions.
Mr MacEntee said that Mr Molony had come to give evidence as " a good citizen" and was being treated with "considerable discourtesy". Mr Molony was giving defence evidence on the 28th day of the trial of Mr Ward. He told Mr MacEntee that in 1996 he was working as a journalist with the Star newspaper but has since joined the Evening Herald. He said that Charles Bowden bought the house next door to his at The Paddocks in Dublin in October 1995 from a garda who had lived there. He said that Bowden was a "different" type of neighbour because of the continuous noise and harassment. "Mr Bowden lived by night. He was constantly active and moving around at night. He often had people back to his house, five or six times a week." Mr Molony said there was incessant, blaring "techno" music from Bowden's house.
He said that Bowden had told him he was an Army officer but he did not believe this as Bowden did not wear a uniform and never kept normal hours and had "a large number of nocturnal visitors". These would beep their horns and Bowden would come out and get in to cars or vans outside.
Mr Molony said when he asked Bowden to turn down the music, his answer was that he did not care about other people.
Mr Molony said that on the day of Veronica Guerin's murder he had been working at the crime scene and had seen the body in the car and was feeling "fairly sick" about it. He arrived home at 6 p.m. and shortly afterwards he noticed trays of beer being carried into Bowden's house. "I formed the opinion there was going to be more booze and music that night," he said.
Later that night, after midnight, there was "a lot of music and raucousness". He said he was "very distraught and upset" by Ms Guerin's murder and he came to the conclusion that the people next door were "in some way celebrating what had happened". "It seemed to me that they were not cast down by it," he said. He said that Bowden and his wife, Ms Juliet Bacon, had matching red and white BMWs and that once Bowden had offered to fight him in the Phoenix Park.
Mr Michael O'Neill, an assistant principal officer at the Department of Justice, said that he had arranged a meeting with the Governor of Arbour Hill prison and two gardai involved in the Witness Protection Programme on October 14th last.
He said he had drawn up a memo for the assistant secretary at the Department who would then report to the Minister for Justice. Mr O'Neill said that in the memo he said that Charles Bowden and another man being held under the Witness Protection Programme were being kept in "total isolation" in a special part of the prison. He said that Bowden was concerned about his family's safety in the run-up to the trial and he recommended that the Minister should consider granting temporary day release to Bowden.
Mr O'Neill said that he also wrote that the question of overnight temporary release would be considered for "very special occasions" and would "be dependent on his performance in court".
He said that the memo had been returned with a note that the Minister accepted his recommendations that Bowden should be granted temporary day release within the next 10 days and that he and the other prisoner should have six temporary day releases over the next year subject to the usual conditions. Mr O'Neill said that the line about "dependent on his court performance" had been deleted by the assistant secretary. He denied a suggestion by Mr MacEntee that this was a reference to granting Bowden concessions in return for him "swearing up" in the Ward trial. The court is due to hear closing submissions from prosecution and defence lawyers today.