99.99% OF PEOPLE IN IRELAND WANT THIS NEW LAW; EXCLUSIVE Defence Minister Willie O'Dea slams critics of new gangbusting Bill.

Byline: AINE HEGARTY

THE Defence Minister today blasts critics of tough new gangland laws saying: "99.99 per cent of my constituents are screaming for something like this."

Willie O'Dea insisted the legislation is necessary as he revealed criminals are now following the families of gardai in Limerick to intimidate officers.

Terrified gardai have told him they now fear their wives are being watched by gangland figures as they drop their children to school.

Mr O'Dea described the latest development as "horrendous" and said: "I don't have to recount the facts of the Roy Collins case to let you know the sort of people that you're dealing with.

"We've a lot of anecdotal evidence that members of gardai's families have been followed home or have been watched.

"There are stories that some retaliation was planned from time to time against members of gardai's families but thankfully it didn't materialise."

In an exclusive Irish Daily Mirror interview, the Defence Minister insisted the new crime bill is the only way to nail the brazen criminal scum behind the murders of several innocent people.

And he has vowed the Government will "resist" any attempts by gangland thugs to target gardai.

INTIMIDATED 

He said: "If you come to the stage where you're so frightened, they intimidate gardai, they intimidate judges or something like that, you'll finish up doing nothing at all about them and let them run the show, you might as well step back."

In response, the minister has been in talks with the Garda Commissioner about a dedicated unit to put Limerick gangsters under 24-hour watch. And he blasted critics of the new Criminal Justice Bill-which includes trial without jury in special criminal courts saying "99.99 per cent of my constituents are screaming for something like this".

He said terrified locals have been crying out for tougher laws following the brutal murders of innocent Mr Collins and Shane Geoghegan by gangland thugs in recent months.

Innocent delivery man Wayne Doherty's murder in Dublin on July 4 also outraged the nation.

Mr O'Dea also rejected claims that the Bill was rushed saying "the Government took some time to prepare this legislation".

He added: "It's been very carefully prepared every step of the way with the advice of the Attorney General, in case there was any danger of unconstitutionality.

"Having prepared the legislation carefully, having debated it extensively a few times at Cabinet, it's now before the House and I see no reason why it shouldn't be passed."

The Criminal Justice Bill will be debated in the Seanad today before being sent to the President to be signed into law.

The minister yesterday insisted the measures were necessary claiming intimi-dation of witnesses and jurors is rife in Limerick.

He said: "Everybody in Limerick knows when somebody is shot in a gangland-type situation who is behind it.

"It's one of a number of people and those people are sort of laughing at the law because they are never charged with any of this stuff."

He said 729 people were called for jury duty in the Kieran Keane murder trial in 2003 but the court still couldn't get 12 people to sit on the jury.

The trial eventually had to be transferred to Cloverhill prison with the jurors given an armed escort as they were driven to and from the jail. At a protest march in Limerick earlier this year, scum gang bosses tried to intimidate locals by filming them as they marched through the city streets.

OPPOSITION

Minister O'Dea dismissed Opposition claims that the Criminal Justice Bill won't smash ruthless gangs.

He said: "This legislation will make it easier to prove someone is directing crime and secondly it will ensure that cases are heard by the Special Criminal Court without a jury.

"I think it will make a very significant difference." He cited the conviction last week of Gary Campion for the murder of Frankie Ryan as such a success.

The Defence Minister said a change to criminal legislation in 2006 - which allows previous statements made by witnesses to be admitted in court - helped secure this conviction.

The main witness identified Campion as the killer in statements to gardai but then claimed he did not know who the killer was when he took the stand.

The Limerick TD said the same people who oppose the Criminal Justice Bill have tried to block every other tough crime measure.

Mr O'Dea said: "I went back the other night through the internet, I was looking at statements in the lead up to that change in the law.

"The same people, the Council for Civil Liberties, the same lawyers who wrote to the Irish Times, they were saying this would be the end to civilisation as we know it.

"They said the same thing about the Criminal Justice Bill in 1984 which has been spectacularly successful."

Irish Mirror Comment: Page 12

CAPTION(S):

IN LINE OF FIRE Gunmen must be taken off our streets STANDING FIRM Willie O'Dea INNOCENT Shane Geoghegan was killed last November INNOCENT Dad Roy Collins was blasted to death in April INNOCENT Wayne Doherty was shot by thugs on July 4