Solicitor to seek review of Geoghegan murder conviction

A defence solicitor who represented Limerick gangland figure John Dundon has said he will be seeking a review of his conviction for the murder of rugby player Shane Geoghegan.

John Devane is seeking the review in the wake of the Garda phone recording controversy which saw telephone conversations recorded in garda stations across the country including Henry Street Garda station in Limerick.

John Dundon (30), from Hyde Road in Limerick, was sentenced to life in prison last August for the murder of the 28-year-old Garryowen rugby player.

Shane Geoghegan died after he was shot five times in a case of mistaken identity as he walked home in the early hours of November 9th 2008.

“While I sympathise with the Geoghegan family obviously. I certainly believe that John Dundon’s telephone calls and consultations were listened to both inside in the garda station and I would go so far as saying also his telephone calls in the prison and to his previous solicitors and also to me,” said Mr Devane.

“I am looking at a number of high profile murder cases and I am also looking at some other matters including a couple of rape maters and matters where people have been convicted - I have always believed in the wrong - of IRA membership,” he added.

Mr Devane described the recording of telephone conversation as “disgraceful” and said John Dundon’s case would be high on his list of priorities.

“I know that prison calls are always recorded and evidence has been gleamed and used in the past even in objections to bail for certain other people because of telephone calls made from the prison to other family members. Certainly John Dundon’s case will be high on my list of priorities and I will be going to Portlaoise tomorrow,” he said.

“It’s an absolute disgrace and to say that the commissioner didn’t know about that I believe is like the organ grinder not knowing the music that he is playing ….I believe that the current Minister for Justice should do as Commissioner Callinan did and fall on his sword,” he added.

Mr Devane said he was currently sitting down with counsel to look back at cases over the years in which he claims telephone conversations were “interfered with”.

He also claimed today that he was previously warned by a senior garda that his own phone was “being monitored”.

“This is an absolute disgrace. Whatever about my telephone being monitored, I’m not silly enough or stupid enough to advice a client of issues that might be of a sensitive nature over my telephone. But to think that the guards can monitor a conversation that might take place over a telephone or in a Garda station is an absolute disgrace,” he said.

“I have suspected that for a long, long, time and when advising people I have often had to write down my instructions to people so that they would follow rather than saying them out and letting the guards hear the advice I was giving or the answers that I was getting to the questions I was putting to the client.

“ I have had to write my instructions to the client. That is dreadful in this country where there are laws to protect the citizens against this type of eavesdropping. Watergate eat your heart out,” he added.