A MAN who is charged with con spiring with others not yet charged to murder the journalist Veronica Guerin on June 26th last was refused bail by the High Court yesterday.
Mr Paul Ward (32), of Windmill Park, Crumlin, Dublin, is also charged with possession of drugs and possession with intent to supply at Old Court, Tallaght, Co Dublin, on October 17th last.
Mr Justice Barron said one was unable to hide the fact that this was what one might call a high-profile crime. Perhaps, he added, it was the most high-profile crime of this generation. So far as the gardai were concerned, Mr Ward was a member of an association of criminals all of whom had left the jurisdiction except himself.
The gardai were of the view that if Mr Ward were given bail, he would follow. The judge said he had no reason to disbelieve the evidence of a Garda inspector. The quantity of drugs involved suggested international connections, to him, at any rate. The tenor of the inspector's evidence was that there were international connections of some sort.
Del Insp Jeremiah O'Connell, Ballyfermot, said that following Ms Guerin's murder a Garda investigation was set up, which eventually focused on a number of people whom the gardai sought to arrest, one of whom was Mr Ward.
In the week prior to Mr Ward's arrest, his home at an address at Windmill Park was searched but he was not living at home. A Garda operation was mounted to effect his arrest. He was arrested in a car on the road at Windmill Park under Section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act.
The inspector said he believed Mr Ward had not been living at home during that week. He believed the reason he was not at home was that he was trying to evade arrest.
He agreed with Ms Pauline Walley, counsel for the State, that there was knowledge in the criminal underworld to the effect that the gardai would have been looking for Mr Ward. There was substantial evidence against Mr Ward in relation to the charges.
Del Insp O'Connell said Mr Ward had 23 previous convictions. They related to robbery, larceny, receiving, assaults and motoring offences over a period from 1979 to 1995.
He believed that if Mr Ward were granted bail, he would not stand trial. He based that belief on the fact that there were persons, who were close associates of Mr Ward whom the gardai had sought to interview who had left the jurisdiction. He also believed that if Mr Ward got bail, he would in interfere with potential witnesses.
Mr Ward had also sought to obtain a passport illegally for his brother, Mr Seamus Ward, who was also a person the gardai were seeking to arrest in relation to "this matter" but whom the gardai had been unable to locate.
In evidence, Mr Ward said he had always turned up for court appearances. He did not know any witnesses. He would give an undertaking to attend for his trial and he would not interfere with witnesses. He was prepared to surrender his passport.
Asked by his counsel, Mr Barry White SC, about the charges, he said he was innocent. He did not make any statements, only that he, was innocent. He had refused to answer questions.
He said he had had a longstanding relationship with a woman and had a 10-year-old daughter.
He never had any convictions in relation to attempting to supply drugs. Cross-examined by Ms, Walley, who asked if he accepted, what the inspector had said in, relation to his associates having left the jurisdiction, Mr Ward said: "What associates? I have no associates." He worked in a newsagents.
He did not know where his brother, Mr Seamus Ward, was. He did not know the gardai were looking for him. He himself now lived at Windmill Park. Before that, he had lived in Walkinstown.
Mr White said that regarding, other persons who might have left the jurisdiction, clearly Mr ward "was not his brother's keeper" or the other persons' either. If he had wanted to leave the jurisdiction, he would have left before his arrest. He had expressed his innocence of the charges. ,