The man accused of the murder of the journalist Veronica Guerin was arrested at gunpoint by a detective who found him sleeping in a Dublin hotel bedroom, the Special Criminal Court heard yesterday.
The court heard that the arrest in the Green Isle Hotel in Clondalkin took place eight days before Mr Paul Ward was arrested in Crumlin on suspicion of having information connected with the gun used in the Guerin murder.
Mr Ward's lawyers are challenging the legality of the second arrest and are claiming that he was arrested twice for the same offence.
The court yesterday heard evidence to decide on the admissibility of certain evidence.
Mr Ward's defence lawyers have claimed that the second arrest was illegal, that Mr Ward was deprived of medication prescribed for him by a doctor, and that he and members of his family were not treated properly by gardai.
Mr Paul "Hippo" Ward (34) of Crumlin, Dublin with an address at Walkinstown Road, Dublin, has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Veronica Guerin at the Naas Road, Clondalkin, Co Dublin, on June 26th, 1996.
The prosecution has claimed that while Mr Ward was neither the driver of the motorcycle nor the passenger who fired the shots that killed Ms Guerin, he was a member of the gang that planned and carried out the killing and that he disposed of the murder weapon and the motorcycle afterwards.
Det Garda Bernard Sheerin of Ronanstown said he received a call at 1.50 a.m. on October 8th, 1996, to go to the Green Isle Hotel in Clondalkin where the manager told him he was suspicious of two people who had booked in.
The manager let him and two uniformed gardai into a bedroom. He saw Mr "Hippo" Ward sleeping in a bed.
He arrested him on suspicion of having firearms at the raid on the SDS premises on the Naas Road on October 2nd, 1996. Mr Ward was taken to Ronanstown Garda station.
Cross-examined by Mr Patrick McEntee SC, for Mr Ward, Det Garda Sheerin said that he was armed but the two uniformed gardai with him were unarmed. He shook Mr Ward to wake him but denied slapping his face.
He also denied that a gun had been pointed at Mr Ward for the entire period that they were in the bedroom. "I drew my official revolver on entering the room and that was the only gun I saw. I wasn't taking chances."
At that stage he did not know that Mr Ward was a suspect in the Guerin murder.
He said Mr Ward was released 45 minutes after his arrival at Ronanstown Garda station because he had received information from an informer that he had arrested the wrong "Hippo" Ward.
Mr McEntee said the whole Ward family was called "Hippo" at school.
Sgt Mick Mulhern said he was the station house officer at Lucan Garda station when Mr Ward was brought there after his arrest on October 16th, 1996, and he kept the custody record, along with Garda Catherine Moore. Mr Ward had requested a solicitor and a doctor and asked that his mother be notified.
Mr Ward was seen by his solicitor, Mr Hanahoe, and by a doctor. He was searched and £412 in cash and a mobile phone were taken from him.
Sgt Mulhern denied a suggestion by defence counsel Mr Barry White SC that Mr Ward had been strip-searched. He said he was aware that Mr Ward was a drug user and that physeptone was prescribed for withdrawal symptoms.
On October 18th Mr Ward asked for a doctor and for physeptone.
The sergeant said Mr Ward had not made any complaints while in custody and no complaints had been made on his behalf.
Garda Moore said she had been given physeptone by a doctor who visited Mr Ward for six minutes shortly after his arrest. She said the doctor told her to give it to Mr Ward when he required it or requested it.
She saw him drink it from a tin container.
The trial continues today.