Brian Meehan has been sentenced to life imprisonment at the Special Criminal Court today for the murder of Veronica Guerin. 34-year-old Meehan, from Kimmage in County Dublin, also received sentences ranging from five to twenty years on the other fourteen drugs and firearms charges on which he was found guilty.
All sentences are to run concurrently. Meehan had denied any involvement in the 1996 murder and is the second man to be convicted in connection with Ms Guerin's murder. Last year the court imposed a life sentence on his associate, Paul Ward, who was said to have disposed of the gun and motorbike used in the killing. The evidence of Charles Bowden, a gang member who turned state's witness in return for immunity from prosecution over the killing, was central in the conviction of Ward. However, his testimony was rejected as unreliable by the judges in the Meehan trial. The court did accept the testimony of Russell Warren, another member of the gang recruited to the Witness Protection Programme.
Ms Guerin's widower, Graham Turley, and her brother, Jimmy, were in court for judgment and sentencing. Afterwards, Mr Guerin expressed his satisfaction at the outcome. Leaving the court, Brian Meehan's father Kevin said that he had no comment to make on the verdict. However, his mother Frances told journalists, "we won't forget it, we'll keep fighting".
Delivering judgment and sentences, presiding judge Mr Justice Frederick Morris said that by her death Ms Guerin had contributed immeasurably to the successful identification and destruction of the drugs empire in which Meehan was involved. It would spare many young people the scourge of drugs and meant her death was not in vain, he added.
The panel of three judges accepted evidence placing Meehan at the scene of the murder, carried out on a main road on the western outskirts of Dublin. The 37-year-old mother was shot six times as she sat in her car at traffic lights by the pillion passenger of a motorcycle which drew up alongside. Prosecutors claimed Meehan was the driver.
A police inspector today told the court that Meehan's gang imported and distributed drugs worth £180 million between 1994 and 1996, the largest operation of its kind yet uncovered in the country. Guns and ammunition belonging to the gang, found following the Guerin murder, were described as the most significant weapons find in the country outside of terrorist investigations.
