A protected witness told the Special Criminal Court yesterday that Mr John Gilligan threatened to kill him minutes after the murder of journalist Veronica Guerin.
Russell Warren said he stole the motorcycle used in the murder and followed Ms Guerin's car from Naas Courthouse on the day of her murder. He spoke to Mr Gilligan by mobile phone before and after the murder and he witnessed a gunman shoot into her car when it was stopped at traffic lights.
Warren said Mr Gilligan threatened to kill him and his family before the murder and three months after the killing told him he was going to have to kill him because he had been interviewed by gardai.
Warren (37), who is serving five years for stealing the motorcycle used in the murder and for handling the proceeds of drugtrafficking, said he rang Mr Gilligan after he had witnessed the shooting. "I told him they were after shooting somebody. He said: `Are they gone? Did they get away?'
"He said: `Are they dead?' and I said they shot somebody five times. I said I was just behind the car. He said `The same thing will happen to you and to your mate if you do anything about it'."
Warren said he collected and counted money for Mr Gilligan from early 1996 and delivered money sometimes to England and Belgium, but usually to Amsterdam.
He told Mr Peter Charleton SC, prosecuting, that he would have had "face to face" contact with Mr Gilligan more than 100 times.
Warren said he got his parents, wife, sister and brotherin-law to help sort and count money. They had all served prison sentences for this except his wife, who was given a suspended sentence.
He said he stole the motorcycle and stored it in a garage in Terenure. He mentioned it to Mr Gilligan, who said: "Hang on to the bike. I might need it."
Mr Gilligan and Brian Meehan later came to the garage and Mr Gilligan told Warren to get the bike ready, put indicators and number plates on it and make sure it was full of petrol. Meehan later came and testdrove the bike several days before the Guerin murder.
Warren said that afterwards Mr Gilligan said to him: "If you ever make a statement against me or ever talk to the guards about me, your mother, your father, your brothers and sisters, I'll kill you. No matter where you are I'll kill you."
Warren said he was due to make a delivery of money to the Continent, but Mr Gilligan told him he needed him.
On the morning of the murder, Brian Meehan came to collect the motorbike and said Mr Gilligan wanted him to go to Naas to follow a red Opel Calibra car. He was also given a description of a woman and told her name was Veronica Guerin.
He said he was in continual mobile-phone contact with Mr Gilligan and with Meehan, the driver of the stolen motorcycle, after he spotted Ms Guerin's car heading towards Dublin.
Warren said the motorbike, driven by Meehan and with a passenger, passed him and stopped at traffic lights. "I just saw the person on the back of the bike put his foot down to stabilise himself. He reached over to the roof of the Opel and he fired a shot.
"The bike was about four cars away. Then he fired another shot. He leaned over and then he fired three consecutive shots. He put the gun back around the waistband of his trousers, then they just drove off."
Warren said he had been arrested on September 30th, 1996, and released after questioning.
Mr Gilligan told him he was going to have to kill him and his family. He said he wanted the full truth about everything that went on in the police station because "you are dead".
Cross-examined by Mr Gilligan's counsel, Mr Terence McDonald QC, Warren denied that he was "a cunning liar".
It was the 13th day of the trial of Mr Gilligan (48), who has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Sunday Independent crime reporter Veronica Guerin (37) at Naas Road, Clondalkin, Dublin on June 26th, 1996.
Mr Gilligan also denies 15 other counts alleging the importation of cannabis and firearms and ammunition offences.
The trial continues today.