LIMERICK solicitor John Devane, who represented John Dundon at his trial for the murder of Garryowen rugby player Shane Geoghegan, says there is no longer an issue over claims he was assaulted by the notorious gangland figure who is now lodging an appeal against his conviction.
Mr. Devane came under intense public pressure to make a complaint to gardaí after he claimed that John Dundon assaulted and knocked him to the floor in the corridor of Limerick District Court four years ago
However, Mr Devane said that Dundon apologised to him two days later and that was an end to the matter.
At the time of the alleged incident, Mr Devane said that he was warned immediately afterwards that if he made a statement, he would be “a dead man walking.”
Four years later, Mr Devane was asked to represent Dundon after the 30-year-old from Hyde Road sacked his legal team shortly before the start of his murder trial.
When Dundon was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment last week, Mr Devane said his client was “perfectly polite and courteous. There has not been any issue with any member of his family or anybody else”.
Confirming that Dundon would be appealing the verdict of the Special Criminal Court, Mr Devane said that the assault issue had been dealt with.
“It rectified itself two days later and I would like to have it published that John Dundon came to me and apologised. He shook my hand and, as far as I am concerned, that was all and the end of it.”
At the time, Mr Devane said, that he was not injured but that he fell as a result of the incident.
“I fell against the wall here in the corridor but that was it. I wasn’t representing him that day,” he said.
In response to questions about the calls for him to make a complaint to gardai, he said: “It went on for more than two days but I was satisfied that the incident was over once he shook my hand and said ‘I am sorry’ and I accepted the apology once it came. ”
Asked about the comments he made in 2009 that he would be putting his life and the lives of his family at risk if he had pursued the matter with the Gardaí, he said: “maybe that was initially how I felt having had the initial shock of the matters. But when somebody came down voluntarily to court and apologised for his actions, I quite readily accepted the apology”.
Asked if he was told he would be a “dead man walking” if he pursued it, Mr Devane said he “had no intention of answering that question at this remove”.
He went on to say that his client and the legal team believed that the case was “railroaded” through the Special Criminal Court.
“Had it gone before a judge and jury, I cannot say that the outcome would have been the same because the evidence might have been far more questionable by a jury,” he said.
“April Collins already made a complaint against Ciara Lynch which was obviously dismissed by a jury and I believe that the same would have happened if this case was brought in the High Court where it should properly have been.”
When asked about the nature of cases brought before the Special Criminal Court in dealing with people like John Dundon, Mr Devane said there wouldn’t have been any “threats of intimidation.
“They could have still kept John Dundon in custody. They could have insured that there was no jury intimidation. As defence counsel Brendan Nix said, juries are very hard to intimidate and jury members who are approached usually go straight to the guards and make complaints”.
When asked about the ease of which witnesses could be intimidated, Mr Devane said that the “only three witnesses in this case were the Collins’ and Christopher McCarthy who were given absolute and total immunity.
“April Collins might say she doesn’t have anything in writing but if I see April Collins being charged, then I will put my hands up to it and say that I am wrong.
“The judges in the Special Criminal Court said that these people were accessories – they are accessories to murder and the letter that they were given covers the stealing of the car etc.”
“We were told by the State that there would be nothing new in this material. We now know that there was other material that could have been challenged in court and we are going to continue to the European Court of Human Rights and to bring this matter before them,” he added.
Asked about John Dundon’s whereabouts at the time of the murder, Mr Devane said:”I believe he was in Dublin at time and he was on the PULSE as being seen in Dublin around that time. Suddenly there is a big gap in relation to the PULSE system and while I have to accept the verdict, it is our belief that the collator’s report in relation to the PULSE was deliberately not filled because it would have shown that Mr Dundon was in Dublin at the time he was supposed to be in Limerick.
Asked about the timescale of an appeal, he said that John Dundon was refused leave to appeal so the legal team would first have to get the court to reverse that decision.
“That could take a year and a half before it comes up in the Court of Criminal Appeal the way things are moving in the court, so, no, it won’t be anytime soon”, he explained.
