A Special Branch detective told the Special Criminal Court yesterday that he stopped a Belfast man, accused of the capital murder of a garda, in a car in Dublin the day before the killing 18 years ago.
Det Insp Brendan Cloonan, of the Special Detective Unit, identified Mr Hughes in court as the man picked out by Garda Thomas Quinn at a Paris railway station in November 1982, as one of the suspects for the murder of Garda Patrick Reynolds (23).
It was the eighth day of the trial of Mr Hughes (42), of Albert Terrace, Belfast, who denies the capital murder of Garda Reynolds at Avonbeg Gardens, Tallaght, Co Dublin, on February 20th, 1982.
Mr Hughes also denies the robbery of £62,100 from a bank in Askeaton, Co Limerick, on February 18th, 1982, receiving stolen cash and having firearms and ammunition with intent to endanger life in Tallaght on February 20th, 1982.
Det Insp Cloonan also told the court that in November 1982 he had travelled to Paris with other gardai and he had recognised a man with a beard as Mr Hughes.
The trial continues today.
