Journalists Killed in 1996 - Motive Confirmed: Veronica Guerin
Publisher | Committee to Protect Journalists |
Publication Date | January 1997 |
Cite as | Committee to Protect Journalists, Journalists Killed in 1996 - Motive Confirmed: Veronica Guerin, January 1997, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/4e64950023.html [accessed 5 June 2023] |
Disclaimer | This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. |
Sunday Independent
June 26, 1996, in Dublin, Ireland
Guerin, a crime reporter for the Sunday Independent, was shot dead by assailants on a motorcycle as she was stopped in her car at a traffic light in Dublin. She had been repeatedly targeted for physical attacks, a shooting, and death threats because of her incisive, continuing investigation into Ireland's criminal underworld that had garnered her CPJ's 1995 International Press Freedom Award.
Two men, Brian Meehan and Paul Ward, were convicted for her murder in 1999 and 1998. Ward's conviction was overturned in 2002, but he remains in prison, where he is serving a 12-year sentence for taking part in a prison riot. John Gilligan, a known Dublin drug trafficker, was also charged but was acquitted because of lack of evidence on March 16, 2001, despite the judge's assertion that there were "grave suspicions" of Gilligan's complicity in the killing.
Medium: | |
Job: | Print Reporter |
Beats Covered: | Crime |
Gender: | Female |
Local or Foreign: | Local |
Freelance: | No |
Type of Death: | Murder |
Suspected Source of Fire: | Criminal Group |
Impunity: | Partial |
Taken Captive: | No |
Tortured: | No |
Threatened: | No |