Liam Brannigan sought exclusion of recordings in murder conspiracy trial

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

Liam Brannigan faced trial at the Special Criminal Court on a charge of conspiring to murder Gary Hanley at a location within the State between 15 September and 6 November 2017. Brannigan had pleaded not guilty. The proceedings were reported on 24 October 2019.

On 24 October, defence counsel Giollaíosa Ó Lideadha SC sought to exclude secret recordings from listening devices placed on cars. He argued that there was a missing link in the evidence about the officers who sought approval for the surveillance. He also argued that a different application should have been made for the continued use of devices that remained on the cars.

A surveillance unit member known as BL said his identification of recordings with particular vehicles was based on material on the Garda system and documents prepared by other gardaí. Ó Lideadha argued that BL could not independently match recordings to devices and vehicles. Sean Gillane SC, for the State, had said at the trial opening that CCTV and audio recordings would be used to prove Brannigan knew of the alleged plot.

Mr Justice Paul Coffey said the court would endeavour to rule on the application concerning CCTV footage and audio recordings on Tuesday at 11am.

This case may have concluded differently. The outcome has not yet been confirmed by a public source we could find.