The killer of journalist Veronica Guerin is understood to be on a cushy regime in prison and has access to his own kitchen and sofa.
Brian Meehan, 50, who is serving a life sentence for his role in the journalist’s murder in Dublin in 1996, was transferred from Portlaoise Prison to Wheatfield jail in west Dublin over a month ago and is now on the 5F landing.
The Irish Mirror has learned that he is now on a “super enhanced regime” which allows him access to other luxury essentials to which other inmates are not entitled.
The move is to prepare him for reintegrating back into society if he is ever released from prison.
A source said that he now has access to a sofa on the landing where he can relax as well as a kitchen that he shares with other prisoners on his wing which includes kitchen utensils and a microwave.
A source said: “The wing he is on in Wheatfield has a super enhanced regime. There’s a sofa, for example, that inmates can relax on and they have access to a kitchen where they can cook for themselves.
“It’s normally for inmates who are getting ready to be released after a long sentence, to get them used to living outside of the prison regime.
“Meehan is not set for release so it’s more than likely just part of program for if the day ever comes.”
The source added: “It’s a far cry from Portlaoise Prison that’s for sure. There must be some plans in the pipeline to release him in the future if he has been moved.”
The move comes just three years after he had all his privileges removed after he was caught with drugs behind bars.
He was allegedly caught with vials of methadone and pills during a search at Portlaoise Prison. In 2017, Meehan lost a final appeal to overturn his conviction.
He sought an appeal against the Court of Appeal’s April 2016 judgment refusing to certify his conviction was a miscarriage of justice.
Meehan tried to argue “new or newly discovered facts” emerged during the trial of John Gilligan, who was cleared of her murder in 2001, but judges described his attempt as an “abuse of process” and dismissed the application.
He then asked the Supreme Court to hear an appeal on that decision but Justice Frank Clarke, Mr Justice John Mac-Menamin and Ms Justice Elizabeth Dunne ruled he had not shown the proposed appeal was necessary.
Meehan, from Crumlin in Dublin, was convicted in 1999 after a 31-day trial before the non-jury Special Criminal Court of Ms Guerin’s murder and other offences involving firearms and drugs.
The prosecution case was Meehan was the driver of a motorcycle which pulled up alongside the crime reporter’s car on June 26, 1996.
The mum-of-one died after the pillion passenger shot her.
