Protected witness in Guerin murder case gets 6 years

A former highlevel member of a ruthless criminal organisation who is under
a death threat because he helped gardai has been jailed for six years on
drugs and firearm charges.

Judge Cyril Kelly, at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court, said that Charles
Bowden will never be able to live a normal life again and may have to
disappear.

Bowden (32), of The Paddocks, Navan Road, Dublin, affirmed signed District
Court pleas to a total of nine charges relating to drug dealing and
possession of guns at an earlier hearing two weeks ago.

"He will attempt to vanish off the face of the earth when he comes out of
prison," Mr Paul O'Higgins SC, for the defence, told Judge Kelly on that
occasion.

Bowden is scheduled to give evidence in trials against a self confessed
suspect for the murder of journalist, Veronica Guerin, Mr John Gilligan,
who is being detained in Britain on drugs charges, and others in future
trials, the court was told.

Cash totalling almost £100,000 which Bowden confessed he earned from drug
dealing was confiscated by the State on the direction of Judge Kelly
without opposition.

The judge said case law on sentencing defendants who gave assistance to the
prosecution was sparse in this jurisdiction.

He had consulted English and Australian case law on the matter before
deciding on sentences which were more lenient than would normally be the
case for the offences.

The gravity of the offences to which Bowden pleaded guilty was indicated by
the fact that seven of the offences carried a maximum of life imprisonment.

Judge Kelly said Bowden had been a highlevel member of a ruthless criminal
organisation. He was earning by his own admission £3,000 a week from
selling drugs and also had control of a lethal arsenal of guns and ammunition.

The gang to which he belonged had shown it had no hesitation in using these
weapons. Bowden was held in custody in conditions of great confinement for
his own safety and could not attend religious services in prison for
security reasons. He was also moved to a different cell every night.

Judge Kelly said many factors had to be taken into consideration in
sentencing. These included Bowden's early guilty plea, his remorse, the
unlikelihood he might reoffend, and the saving to the State by avoiding a
lengthy trial.

Judge Kelly imposed seven sentences of six years each, and two sentences of
three years, all to run concurrent and to date from March 11th last when
Bowden went into custody.

Bowden pleaded guilty to five charges of having cannabis for sale or supply
at a rented lockup premises in Greenmount Industrial Estate, Harolds
Cross, on dates from November 10th, 1995, to October 3rd, 1996.

He also admitted unlawful possession of cannabis and cocaine on or about
October 3rd to October 5th, at Greenmount Industrial Estate and at his
home, and to having guns and ammunition at the Old Court Road, Tallaght,
between November 10th, 1995, and October 3rd, 1996, with the intention of
enabling another person or persons to endanger life.

At the first hearing, Det Insp John O'Mahony said Bowden's cooperation
with the gardai was carried out in the full knowledge of the serious risk
to his own life and without any deal being offered to him.

Gardai took threats against Bowden's life seriously. His house was gutted
by fire last April on the night after a telephone threat was made. His
separated wife with whom he is on good terms, their three children, and his
girlfriend are all under 24hour armed protection.

Mr Peter Charleton SC, for the prosecution, said the Director of Public
Prosecutions had made "an irrevocable decision" not to prosecute Bowden in
connection with the murder of Ms Guerin on the basis of statements made by
him up to now, future statements, or of any evidence he might give in
proceedings against others.

Det Insp O'Mahony, National Bureau of Crime Investigation, said Bowden was
arrested at his home on October 5th, 1996, on suspicion of being in
possession of information about firearms at the junction of Naas Road and
Boot Road on June 26th, 1996, the day Ms Guerin was murdered.

He admitted being a member of a gang who imported a huge amount of cannabis
into Ireland from Holland via Cork.

Det Insp O'Mahony said there were two others higher up in the gang
hierarchy between him and the leader whom Bowden was unaware of until the
time of the Veronica Guerin murder. He met the leader some time after first
hearing his name when he handed money to him in Dublin.