The Court of Criminal Appeal has reserved judgment in an application brought by the Director of Public Prosecutions, who is seeking to strike out proceedings brought by Brian Meehan on grounds there are no new or “newly discovered” facts justifying allowing it to proceed and that it is “an abuse of process”.
Meehan (47), Crumlin, Dublin, is serving a life sentence in Portlaoise prison for the murder of Veronica Guerin in July 1999 following a 31-day trial before the non-jury Special Criminal Court. He was also jailed on drugs and firearms charges.
Meehan is seeking to bring an application under section 2 of the Criminal Procedure Act 1993, as he says that “new facts” emanating from material disclosed for the 2001 trial of John Gilligan show Meehan’s conviction was a miscarriage of justice.