A man who claims Mr Patrick Gillane asked him to murder his wife told a jury he thought the request was "a big joke". Mr Michael Doyle also told Dublin Circuit Criminal Court he was called "a liar" three or four times by the accused when he identified him in a Galway Garda station as the man who had asked him to kill his wife.
Mr Doyle said he had first recognised Mr Gillane as the man who solicited him and Mr Christopher Bolger to carry out a murder when he saw an RTE television news programme. Mr Gillane seemed to be crying on the programme.
He then recognised him again the next day in a newspaper photograph his friend, Mr Bolger, had, and at a later stage he identified him twice in Mill Street Garda station in Galway.
Mr Gillane (35), of Glenbrack, Gort, Co Galway, has pleaded not guilty to soliciting Mr Christopher Bolger and Mr Michael Doyle in Dublin on a date unknown in January 1994 to murder his wife.
At the conclusion of the cross-examination of Mr Bolger, the court heard he had 40 criminal convictions and had been detained in the Central Mental Hospital five or six times.
Giving evidence on the third day of the trial, Mr Doyle recalled walking towards James Street, Dublin, on a Sunday evening with his brother, John, a man called Christy Murray and Mr Bolger when a car approached.
He could not remember what month this happened or what year.
Mr Doyle told prosecuting counsel, Mr Edward Comyn, the driver sought and was given directions to the Royal Hospital, Kilmainham. He then seemed to stall and not to want to drive off.
Eventually he did but came back and spoke to him and Mr Bolger again. He asked him and Mr Bolger if they were working. They replied they were not. He then asked if they lived in the area and they said they lived in the hostel at Back Lane, Christchurch.
Mr Doyle said his friend asked the driver for a cigarette and he said he did not smoke but would get them cigarettes.
He got into the back seat and Mr Bolger into the front passenger seat and the accused drove to a shop in Thomas Street where he bought a packet of cigarettes. He gave them one each when he came back to the car and put the packet on the dashboard.
Mr Doyle told the jury of eight women and four men the driver then asked them if they would "do a job for him". He might have asked if there was a quiet place they could speak and they directed him to the nearby Basin Lane Flats.
At the flats, the driver again asked if they would do a job for him and when they asked what the job was he replied he wanted them to kill someone.
He said: "We asked him whom he wanted killed and he replied `my wife'. We asked him why and he said she was threatening to take everything he had. We thought it was a big joke".
While they spoke a Garda car drove past them and circled around. It stopped for a few seconds and then moved off.
Mr Doyle said he told the driver he and Mr Bolger wanted to speak in private and they got out of the car. They then spoke to him again and asked him if he was a homosexual or if he wanted a woman.
The driver said he was not a homosexual and did not want a woman. He again asked them if they were going to do "this job" for him because if they were not they were no good to him. He also asked if they knew anyone else who might do it.
Mr Doyle said that, some months later while in the Simon Community on Usher's Quay, he saw the man on an RTE programme. He was not paying much attention until he saw the man, who seemed to be crying.
The next day he met Mr Bolger at a day centre in nearby Church Street. Mr Bolger had a newspaper and was very excitedly pointing at a photograph in it of the same man.
Mr Doyle said Mr Bolger spoke to Det Garda Alan Baily in the Bridewell station, with whom he was friendly, about the matter. Det Garda Baily spoke to him later about it and he was shown a video of the news programme at "a private showing" on another occasion in Kevin Street Garda station.
He could not recall when he went to Mill Street Garda station in Galway. He went on the train by himself and was met by a detective. He knew he was going there to identify the car driver.
Mr Doyle said he was put in the hallway of the Garda station and told to nod his head if he saw the man.
The man came in some time later and he nodded his head to a nearby detective.
He was then brought to a room where the man was sitting. There were two other people there and he again identified the man, who replied three or four times he was "a liar".
Cross-examined by Mr Eamonn Leahy SC, for the defence, Mr Doyle agreed his statement was read over to him by a detective on Monday and on Tuesday at his request. It was read over to him again yesterday but he could not remember if he had asked the garda to do it.
He denied he had forgotten his evidence, but there were some things he was confused about and he wanted to refresh his memory.
???i relating to the case apart from his statement to Det Gda Garda Baily, looking at the video of the news programme in Kevin Street Garda station, and going to Galway.
Witness replied he was met one time by "two Special Branch men" outside a Post Office and "I threw the head a bit, telling them I had told the gardai everything I knew".
Earlier, Mr Leahy put it to Mr Bolger that Mr Gillane had blue eyes rather than hazel, as the witness claimed in his evidence.
Mr Leahy also said evidence would be given to the jury to prove his client never had a moustache, in contradiction of Mr Bolger's claim that the car driver had a moustache covering his lip.
Replying to repeated questions by Mr Leahy concerning his contacts with gardai in relation to the case, Mr Bolger agreed that he had forgotten about a meeting in the Bridewell Garda station in November 1995 where Mr Doyle's statement was read to him.
Pressed on other meetings he might have had, he said he did not think he met two detectives on September 22nd, 1996, in the Back Lane Hostel.
Mr Leahy also noted that Mr Bolger had said in his evidence that the alleged proposition was made to him at Basin Lane Flats but that he had told Galway District Court in depositions the request to murder a woman was made outside the Royal Hospital, Kilmainham.
The hearing continues.