David Cullen denies witness protection claim in murder trial

This report is a localnews.ie summary based on public court reporting and records; sources are listed below.

David Cullen denied a claim about witness protection while being cross-examined at the Special Criminal Court on 4 December 2014. The former murder accused, now a State witness, was giving evidence in the trial of three men charged with murdering Peter Butterly.

Cullen rejected the suggestion that leaving Ireland for protection would be attractive because his life here had been difficult. He accepted he had an incentive to implicate Sharif Kelly because he was avoiding a possible life sentence, while the murder trial continued.