THE trial of a former Co Antrim man who fled to Dublin to live under an assumed name after the shooting of a Belfast man outside a Co Tyrone hotel over two decades ago, yesterday heard of the covert Garda operation to catch him.
Officers from the Garda National Bureau of Criminal Investigation, identified to Belfast Crown Court only as Garda A, B and C told how they had been tasked to identify Francis 'Studs' Lanigan, suspected of involvement in the May 1998 murder of John Stephen Knocker.
The now aged 55-year-old Lanigan, originally with an address in Knockmore Square, Lisburn, denies the revenge murder of 22-year-old Mr Knocker for attacking and beating him up outside the former Glengannon Hotel outside Dungannon. He also denies possessing the Browning 9mm pistol used in the shooting.
Trial judge Mr Justice Horner, heard that Lanigan had fled to Dublin in the aftermath of the shooting and was suspected of working as a barber in a gym complex in the Irish capital.
Garda A told the court he had been tasked with mounting a suveillance operation at the Carlisle Gym complex in Teranure in south Dublin where it was suspected Lanigan was working as a freelance barber. The Garda said as part of the operation he even went for a hair cut and engaged him in chat.
He said Lanigan mentioned he was form Northern Ireland, and his name was Ciaran". The officer added that although 'Ciaran' also went by the surname of McCrory, from his investigation he was "satisfied that the man in question was Francis Lanigan".
The Garda team had also been tasked to obtain a sample of his DNA and to locate and confirm his address, later said to be in Delhurst Terrace, Clonsilla. Garda B also told the court that in October 2009, he had watched as Lanigan bought himself a cup of coffee and a sandwich at the sports centre.
He took it into the front foyer area to eat as he read his newspaper. Garda B said there were two waste bins in the area, and he had placed his own sports bag on top of one of them, while inside the other, he placed a newspaper to catch whatever Lanigan might throw away.
Garda B said Lanigan eventually discarded a coffee cup and sandwich wrapper in the second bin, and on leaving, he went to the bin, and after doning a pair of forensic glove, retrieved the items putting them into a clear plastic evidence bag.
Garda C said that he was aware, from his colleagues that Francis Lanigan, was allegedly working as a barber in the complex and was present, watching from his car, when Garda B, obtained the items for forensic examination.
The court has already heard that tests on the rim of the coffee cup recovered a DNA profile which matched that of Lanigan.
