The late Limerick crime boss, Kieran Keane, warned the father of a key witness in a murder trial that his daughter should say nothing about how a young man was stabbed to death, a court has been told.
The evidence was heard yesterday at Limerick Circuit Court during the sentencing hearing of a woman who pleaded guilty to perjury following the collapse of a murder trial in 2003.
Amanda McNamara (22), formerly of Lee Estate, Limerick, was charged with "knowingly and falsely swearing" that she did not know where she was when Eric Leamy died, saying this while under oath as a witness at the Central Criminal Court in Dublin on October 30th, 2003.
The trial of Liam Keane had collapsed after several witnesses denied making statements identifying him as the killer of Eric Leamy (19) in August 2001.
Keane walked free from the Central Criminal Court in Dublin after the Director of Public Prosecutions ordered that a nolle prosequi be entered with his presumption of innocence still intact. Following the collapse of the trial, Mr Keane infamously gave a two-fingered salute to the assembled media outside the court.
At Limerick Circuit Court yesterday, Supt John Scanlan said the substance of McNamara's evidence would have been that she saw Keane stab Leamy and strike him with a piece of timber.
She made four statements to gardaí following the murder investigation, but during her direct evidence in the subsequent murder trial she said she could not remember where she was.
Supt Scanlan gave evidence that during the murder trial she said she had a serious drug and alcohol problem and that she was "out of her head" on the night Leamy was killed.
However, when she was later arrested and charged with perjury, McNamara admitted to gardaí that she had lied in court and had made up the stories about her drug and alcohol addiction, the court was told.
Evidence was heard that she was subjected to a campaign of fear and intimidation and that Keane had called to her place of work in the Crescent shopping centre and called her a "rat".
People had been calling to her grandparents' home, and she was genuinely in fear of the consequences of giving evidence in the murder trial, the court heard.
Supt Scanlan said that McNamara had no previous convictions and had been in full-time employment since successfully completing her Leaving Cert.
He also gave evidence of a meeting between Keane's uncle - the late Limerick crime boss Kieran Keane - and McNamara's father the day after Leamy's death. Kieran Keane, who was murdered during the Limerick feud in 2003, phoned Clement McNamara and said he wanted to meet him. Mr McNamara knew what Kieran Keane wanted to talk to him about and when he met him he was told to ensure that his daughter said nothing about Leamy's death, the court heard.
Mr McNamara said his daughter was an adult, and he could not guarantee what she might say to gardaí or in court.
Kieran Keane wrote down the phone number of a local solicitor and told Mr McNamara to contact him to "look after it".
In the witness box yesterday, Amanda McNamara said she had been living apart from her family for a number of years because of stress and tension following Leamy's killing and the subsequent murder trial.
She wanted to apologise for wasting time and conceded that she should not have done it, but did not realise the consequences at the time.
"I was just scared, in all honesty," she told the court.
Jonathan Edwards SC, defending, told Judge Carroll Moran that his client had put herself at the mercy of the court and was "truly remorseful".
Mr Edwards said the people who had threatened his client were notorious in Limerick and were major protagonists in the ongoing feud.
Judge Moran adjourned sentencing to the first day of the next term of Limerick Circuit Court.