The Dublin man sentenced to life imprisonment yesterday for the murder of the journalist Veronica Guerin will start appeal proceedings in January.
Paul Ward (34) was convicted after the non-jury Special Criminal Court accepted the evidence of Charles Bowden, the first State witness to be protected under the Witness Protection Scheme set up by the Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue.
The court's three judges rejected admissions Ward was alleged to have made in Garda custody, and strongly criticised the Garda handling of the interrogation.
They said there was "some element of doubt about whether the alleged admissions were in fact made by the accused," and that there had been a "conscious and deliberate disregard of the accused's basic constitutional right to fair procedures and treatment while in custody."
A Garda spokesman said thei force welcomed the verdict and would be "studying in detail the judgment of the court" over the next few days. The case was only one part of the investigation, the spokesman said, and there were other matters before the courts.
Mr Justice Smyth, Mr Justice Ballagh and the presiding judge, Mr Justice Barr, said their ruling on the admissions was made "in the interest of justice and fairness".
Legal experts said they were surprised that the conviction was based on evidence of an accomplice witness.
Bowden has been given immunity from prosecution for the murder in return for evidence against former accomplices.
Bowden's evidence about Ward's involvement in planning the murder had "a strong ring of truth", the judges said. And he had no motive to implicate Ward rather than other members of the gang, whom he had named as part of the drugs operation but not part of the "murder team".
A spokesman for the Irish Council for Civil Liberties said there were serious concerns about the judgment.
Ms Guerin's brother, Mr Jimmy Guerin, said he was pleased with the decision.
The Labour justice spokesman, Mr Pat Upton, said without video-recording of suspects' interviews the courts would continue to question the reliability of unrecorded interviews.
