Veronica Guerin murderer Brian Meehan to spend another Christmas in prison as parole refused

Brian Meehan (56) was jailed in December 1999 for murdering the Sunday Independent crime writer on June 26, 1996.

He was an integral part of the hit team that shot the 36-year-old mother of one as she drove from Naas to Dublin following a court case.

Meehan, from Stannaway Road in Crumlin, was riding the black Kawasaki motorbike that pulled alongside her red Opel car before Patrick ‘Dutchy’ Holland opened fire on her through the driver’s window.

He was arrested in Amsterdam in October 1997 and fought his extradition back to Ireland for 10 months, but was jailed for life for the murder by the Special Criminal Court. He was also jailed on drugs and firearms charges.

Gang leader John Gilligan was also charged with the murder, but found not guilty. He later served 17 years of a 20-year sentence for drug trafficking.

Meehan is understood to have applied for parole to the newly constituted and independent Parole Board, but was told this week that his application was turned down.

It will be July 2025 before he can apply for parole again.

Reacting to the news, Ms Guerin’s family said it was “welcome”.

“This is welcome news to the family. It would be terrible to think that he could have been out by Christmas,” said one family member.

“The system has judged his application for parole and we are pleased with the decision that has been made.”

Neither the Parole Board nor the Irish Prison Service would make a comment on the matter.

The decision to refuse parole means Meehan will have spent more than 25 years in jail by the time he gets to apply for parole again.

Previous bids to get parole are said to have been met with opposition from Ms Guerin’s family.

While behind bars, Meehan has sometimes come to the attention of prison authorities. In June 2013, it was reported that he had lost his jail privileges after he smuggled drugs inside his body into prison, after they were passed to him by a relative.

Bosses at Portlaoise Prison launched an investigation after receiving information that Meehan had brought drugs into his jail cell.

Officers found he was concealing a quantity of cannabis, which CCTV footage revealed had changed hands during a jail visit.

There was a similar incident reported three years later, but Meehan is not known to be a drug user and it was not known if was holding the drugs for another inmate, or why he had them.

Meehan has spent the past two years at Shelton Abbey open prison in Co Wicklow, which has a more “light-touch” regime than other jails within the prison system.

He has been described as a “model prisoner” who had hoped his arrival at Shelton was an indicator that he would soon be freed.

Most prisoners there would be moved out into society after a year or two, but Meehan will now have to spend more time there. However, he will probably be given greater access to temporary release as time progresses.

It is understood he has been let out for medical appointments while accompanied by prison officers, but that he will be given more day release in the coming months as part of the regime to re-integrate him back into society.

He has also been seen on a pitch and putt green at Shelton Abbey and is understood to be working in the prison storeroom.

Patrick ‘Dutchy’ Holland, who gardaí say fired the gun that killed Veronica Guerin, died in a UK prison in June 2009 at the age of 70.

Gardaí were satisfied after a lengthy investigation that Holland fired the fatal shots, but they were unable to secure the evidence to ensure he would be convicted on a murder charge.

However, during his trial in the Special Criminal Court on drugs charges, a garda named him as the man believed to have been the killer.

Holland had been arrested in 1997 at Dún Laoghaire ferry port after he had returned from Britain, where he had been hiding out following the murder.

He was convicted on the drugs charges and initially sentenced to 20 years behind bars. But the jail term was later reduced on appeal to 12 years and with standard remission of a quarter of his sentence, he was released from Portlaoise in 2006 after serving nine years.

Within a year of his release, he was one of five people arrested by police in London following an undercover operation. Holland, who had an address in south-east London, was charged with involvement in a “honey-trap” kidnap plot and sentenced to eight years in jail in May 2007. He died in Parkhurst Prison two years later.