A Dublin man serving a 14year sentence on drugs charges is seeking to have his conviction quashed and to be retried.
Eamonn Kelly claims there was non-disclosure of material at his trial which went to the root of the case against him.
Lawyers for Kelly, of Furry Park Road, Dublin, have applied to the Court of Criminal Appeal under Section 2 of the Criminal Procedure Act, 1993, on the grounds that there are newly discovered facts in the case or facts whose significance was not known or appreciated at the time of Kelly's trial. Kelly is serving a 14-year sentence imposed in June 1994 for possession of cocaine.
The Director of Public Prosecutions is opposing the application, and a Garda superintendent at the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation said Kelly was not entitled to the relief claimed.
It is claimed on behalf of Kelly that the former head of the City of London Criminal Investigation Department and Fraud Squad, Commissioner Thomas Dickinson, travelled to Dublin shortly after the arrest of Kelly and a co-accused, John Francis Conlon, in September 1992.
During that visit, it is submitted, Commissioner Dickinson gave information to gardai which would have been essential to the defence in the course of the trial before Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.
The DPP, it is claimed, failed to disclose to Kelly that Conlon worked for the FBI, US Customs and the British authorities.
Lawyers for Kelly have also submitted that there was a failure on the part of the DPP or the Garda authorities to disclose matters on which he ought to have had notice and which went to the root of the case against him, namely information relating to the role and conduct of Conlon leading up to Kelly's arrest and prosecution.
Mr Barry White SC, for Kelly, said Conlon was not present yesterday. He had been residing in the Philippines for some time and apparently had been undergoing specialist treatment. He had not returned to the State in circumstances where he said he had not been able to finance his return to this jurisdiction.
Det Supt Martin Callinan, in an affidavit, said he had never seen or heard of Conlon until September 3rd, 1992, during the Garda operation when Conlon arrived at Dublin Airport and met Kelly. His identity became known to gardai only following his arrest on that date.
Det Supt Callinan said no police force or any security force in the UK or US had made any contact with gardai regarding Conlon's activities.
Det Supt Callinan added that he believed that all relevant matters had been fully disclosed in the case.
The hearing continues.