The husband of murdered woman Irene White has told this paper he is “shocked” that gardai want to charge him over her death.
We can reveal that gardai are awaiting a decision from the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) after recommending that Ms White’s husband Alan be charged in connection with her murder in her home in Dundalk on April 6, 2005.
But speaking exclusively to this paper from his home, Alan White - who has previously been arrested over his wife’s death, told us he was “shocked” that gardai have recently recommended to the DPP that he be charged - and strongly denied that he was in any way linked to her brutal murder.
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“Well it’s quite a shock. Everything has been so quiet for a while. This is so out of the blue,” Mr White said.
“I wasn’t even aware of it to tell you the truth. This is the first I’ve heard.”
Speaking about his previous arrest Mr White insisted that “nothing” came out of his interview with gardai - and maintained that he had no involvement in his wife’s death.
In response to being asked about his previous arrest he said: “Yeah, well I don’t know how to term it, I think the term is helping with enquiries or something like that, or whatever way they phrase it.
“Yeah I was interviewed before ok but nothing came of that and I haven’t heard anything yet since.”
Told again that it is understood gardai have now sent a file to the DPP recommending he be charged, Mr White expressed shock.
“Oh. No well I’m actually surprised to hear anything about it. I haven’t heard anything from anybody.”
Two men - Anthony Lambe and Niall Power are serving life for Irene’s murder - but a so-called “mastermind” was suspected of ordering the pair to have the young mother killed.
Lambe brutally stabbed Irene 34 times and was paid €2,000 by Power, who eventually turned himself in and claimed he was operating on the orders of a “mastermind.”
Asked by this paper today if he was the mastermind Mr White laughed and said: “No. I don’t think I’m the mastermind of anything.”
Asked about the fact that members of the public might suspect he had something to do with his wife’s death Mr White added: “Oh they are, yeah but I don’t know, people make their own minds up.
“I don’t think there is any convincing people. I’m looking at other stories about the BBC and RTE and what's going on on the internet and what comments have been posted.
“Some of it is outrageous what people are saying. People seem to get half a story and jump at it,” he said.
Asked if he was maintaining his innocence Mr White said: “That goes without saying.”
But he again pointed out that gardai at least suspect he had something to do with his wife’s murder - given the file to the DPP.
“Yeah, well that’s what I’m saying, that's the first I’ve heard of it. I’m very surprised, you know.”
Asked if about the possibility that the DPP come back recommending he be charged and whether he would argue his innocence in court Mr White said:
“Oh sure yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They’re not telling the truth, you know what I mean?
“That’s why I’m saying I’m surprised. I don't know how long this is going on.”
Asked about whether he finds it difficult that people may suspect he had involvement he said:
“Well I have loads of support from friends and family. I have that so, like I didn’t come across any direct comments or that from the public.
“I wouldn’t know a lot of the public.”
Mr White was insistent also that he wasn’t sure if the full story about what happened to Irene has been told - and claimed there are “unanswered questions” about it.
“There's unanswered questions. It just doesn’t seem to make sense, you know what I mean - any of it.
“There was talk of drug involvement with some of those lads and I was always totally against drugs and still am,” he said.
He also said he couldn’t fully understand how Lambe and Power got involved saying: “I don’t know because I find it hard to even understand how that came about.
“So obviously there was a lot going on that I wasn’t aware of so I dunno I can’t figure it out.”
And when asked what message he would have for any person involved in his wife’s death that has yet to be prosecuted he said: “Oh well the guards will catch up with them. Clear the air for everybody's sake you know what I mean?”
But when we again pressed Mr White about the possibility that gardai ultimately charge him with being involved, Mr White again insisted he will defend his innocence.
“Oh yeah (I will defend my innocence).”
It has been alleged that Lambe, who brutally murdered Irene and was ordered to do so by ‘middleman’ Niall Power was ultimately acting on the instructions of another person.
But when asked directly about this assertion and whether he was angry about being a suspect, Mr White said: “I’m angry that everything is sort of left wide open to interpretation.
“And you know the public, they take their own interpretation on it. But I’ve been lucky to have a lot of support from people. So that end of it hasn’t affected me.”
Mr White said he had been deliberately avoiding media coverage for years after his wife’s death, but said he may now take an interest in what is being written.
“At the time with the papers it was just very upsetting. But it's gone so quiet now I might actually take an interest in it to see what’s being said.
But he said it would still be a shock to him if he was charged.
“It would be.”
Asked directly if he had anything to do with his wife’s death.
“No. No. It’s quite a shock what you told me there (about the DPP) because everything has been so quiet for a while.
In his confession to gardai, after his arrest for the horrific murder in 2017, drug-addled killer Anthony Lambe said he “lost the head” when Irene didn’t die - after initially stabbing her twice in the kitchen of her home in Dundalk.
The evil killer said the victim asked him “what he was doing” as he then continued to stab her over 30 times.
Lambe confessed to a former girlfriend that he killed Irene and she in turn told gardai after they tracked her down in a foreign jurisdiction.
Irene’s sister Anne Declassian, who fought tirelessly for years to get justice, sadly passed away before the ‘mastermind’ could be brought to justice.
However speaking after thug Anthony Lambe was jailed for life in 2019, Ms Declassian said:
“Anthony Lambe has never fully accounted for what happened on that day.
“Why did he go to that house? Why did he kill my sister? What was his motive? He gave my sister a horrible death. He stabbed her over 30 times.
“Nothing this man can do now will ever bring my sister back. This man is only pleading guilty now because he was caught.”
Before Anne’s death, she told of her sorrow that she may not live to see the mastermind caught.
“I’m filled with sorrow and anguish that I may not live to see all those responsible held accountable for their actions.
“I know that if I lose my battle with cancer before then, my family will never stop fighting to achieve my last wish.”
Before she was killed, Irene wrote in her diary that the mastermind told her he would have her killed.
"You will not know the hour or minute of the day when you will be murdered and I will have the perfect alibi," she wrote in the diary.
