GARDAI are to study telephone records to determine if any calls were made by the suspected organiser of the murder of Baiba Saulite to the gunman who carried out the contract killing.

Senior officers say the records may help them identify links between the alleged organiser and criminals regarded as capable of accepting the contract.

Gardai are not yet certain if the Latvian-born mother of two was murdered by a local criminal or if a hired killer was brought in from outside the jurisdiction.

The suspected organiser is known to have built up a close relationship with members of a Limerick-based crime gang in the past year.

But gardai say that there is no evidence suggesting that a member of the Limerick gang was responsible for the savage shooting, although they say every line of inquiry is being pursued.

Information

Senior officers also say there is no information suggesting the suspect made a telephone call ordering the gunman to make the hit on Sunday afternoon, only hours before Ms Saulite was gunned down on the doorstep of her home at Holywell Square in Swords, Co Dublin.

Gardai are carrying out a review of all the intelligence which they have gathered over the past few years in relation to Ms Saulite, her friends and associates, and the suspect and his criminal partners.

They are trying to establish the extent of links between the murder, a previous incident in which Ms Saulite's car was damaged outside her then home in Kinsealy, Co Dublin, last June, and a petrol bomb attack on the Swords home of her solicitor, John Hennessy, last January.

While the outcome of the review could be helpful to the investigation team, it will also form part of a report being compiled by an assistant garda commissioner into what information was known to the gardai about concerns for Ms Saulite's safety over the past year.

The report will then be forwarded to Garda Commissioner Noel Conroy, who will decide if an internal inquiry should be held into the measures taken by gardai to protect Ms Saulite and Mr Hennessy on the basis of that information.

Last month, gardai received intelligence suggesting there was a specific death threat against Mr Hennessy.

He was advised about his security and given protection, sometimes armed, by gardai.

But gardai are adamant there was no specific death threat against Ms Saulite and that they had not been informed of her concerns about her safety until after her murder.

Appeal

Ms Saulite's brother and sister-in-law were last night making arrangements for the repatriation of her body to Latvia.

Her sister-in-law also recorded an appeal yesterday afternoon for help in tracking down her killer and this will be broadcast on RTE's 'Crime Call' programme on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said he was concerned there had been three fatal shootings in just over a week in Dublin and Drogheda. "Murder figures are down for 2006 but it gives me no satisfaction in saying that. There are just too many murders.

"There are too many murders related to feuds and sometimes these feuds are criminal-related or family-related," said Mr Ahern.

"It is very regrettable that so many of these feuds end up at the barrel of a gun. It is hugely worrying and it is worrying for the gardai who are putting huge resources into it."

He was commenting on the murder of drug dealer Paul Reay in Drogheda yesterday morning, the contract hit on Ms Saulite last Sunday night, and the shooting of Ray Collins at Clonliffe Avenue last Tuesday week.

Tom Brady

Remarks saying husband was behind the murder are are withdrawn

FIANNA Fail Seanad leader Mary O'Rourke withdrew remarks she made, under privilege, that the jailed husband of Baiba Saulite was able to "direct operations" in her murder.

Senator O'Rourke (pictured above) made the comments during exchanges in the Seanad over the levels of violence against women. She noted that 125 women had been murdered in the last decade, and that so many more were nearly murdered - and that this fact was quickly forgotten.

Referring to the husband of murdered mother-of-two Ms Saulite, she added: "He has a cast-iron alibi but was obviously able to direct operations."

A little later Senator O'Rourke asked to make a statement to the Seanad, and said when she had been dealing with the Order of Business earlier she "may have inadvertently given the impression that the murder of the young Latvian woman, Baiba Saulite, was guided by a particular person".

"I cannot do that, nor should I do it. I have great faith in the Garda and our justice system and I am sure whoever carried out that dreadful crime will be brought to justice," she added.

BRIAN DOWLING and

GERALDINE COLLINS