Case against Gilligan was proven, court told

The prosecution proved John Gilligan's leadership of a drugs gang at his trial and that he was the "main wholesaler" in the drugs operation, the Supreme Court was told yesterday.

Peter Charleton SC, for the DPP, said the court was entitled to look at evidence showing John Gilligan was annoyed when he ejected the late journalist Veronica Guerin when she arrived at his equestrian centre and to ask: "What is it that Gilligan's protecting?" The trial court had also accepted evidence that Gilligan had agreed he had threatened Ms Guerin, he added.

Counsel said the court was also entitled to ask why Gilligan was writing on behalf of other members of the gang to an accomplice witness against him, Russell Warren (when Warren was in prison and prior to Gilligan's trial), if Gilligan was not head of the gang.

Why was Gilligan writing to Warren telling the latter not to worry about his family and saying Warren was made to tell lies by the police unless Gilligan had "something to worry about", Mr Charleton also asked.

These were all building blocks of the prosecution case against Gilligan and when taken cumulatively, they all provided circumstantial evidence supporting the evidence of three accomplices - Warren, Charles Bowden and John Dunne - and linked Gilligan to the drug offences, Mr Charleton submitted. He said Gilligan's lawyers could "go on" about the Witness Protection Programme, on which all three accomplices were placed, but the reality was that there were a lot of facts on the ground that were all piling up, and the Special Criminal Court (SCC) was entitled to reach the conclusions it did - that there was a gang importing drugs and that Gilligan was leading it.

Counsel was making submissions opposing Gilligan's final legal attempt before the Supreme Court to overturn his conviction by the SCC in 2001 on charges of having cannabis resin for sale and supply. Gilligan was acquitted on a charge of the murder of Ms Guerin, who was shot dead on the Naas dual carriageway in June 1996, and on firearms charges.

He was jailed for 28 years for the drugs offences but this was reduced on appeal to 20 years.

The appeal is before the Supreme Court after the Court of Criminal Appeal certified two issues for determination arising from the appeal court's judgment rejecting Gilligan's appeal.

The issues related to the circumstances in which evidence from an accomplice witness who is on a Witness Protection Programme is ever inadmissible in a criminal trial and to the nature of the corroboration required from such witnesses.

During yesterday's hearing, Gilligan stood up and declared he had been "forcibly removed" from the UK back to Ireland and sought an opportunity to consult with his lawyers. However, the hearing proceeded.

In his submissions, Mr Charleton said the correct approach to corroboration was not to look at the accomplice evidence in isolation. A court could not know the facts at issue without considering the entirety of the case. The normal rules of admissibility applied to accomplice evidence.

He said the entire case against Gilligan was well corroborated. The prosecution had proven Gilligan's involvement in the drugs gang by circumstantial evidence and by evidence from the three accomplices.

In written submissions to the court for the DPP, it was argued there was nothing to suggest the SCC judgment was in any way perverse. The court had admitted evidence lawfully and listened to it with great care and had reasoned out in its judgment as to why it accepted certain items of evidence and rejected others. The appeal resumes on Tuesday.