Gilligan refused leave to appeal punishment

Convicted drugs baron John Gilligan has been refused leave to appeal his punishment for an incident in Portlaoise Prison on March 25th.

John Gilligan

Mr Justice McKechnie gave the judgment in the High Court this morning.

In a judgment that took over an hour to deliver, Mr Justice McKechnie said, regarding the grounds for seeking leave to appeal in this case, Gilligan is now in prison not on remand but because of due process.

Mr Justice McKechnie later said a convicted person must accept discipline and must accommodate himself to prison life, and that curtailment and restriction result from the environment which he is in.

Referring to the fact Gilligan is well known, the judge said: "The applicant could be Joe Bloggs instead of John Gilligan." The judge also said that who Gilligan is and what his background is "is entirely irrelevant".

Gilligan is being held in a "bunker" at Portlaoise Prison for allegedly threatening to kill two prison officers after assaulting one of the two in a row over access to the prison shop on March 25th.

In reference to Gilligan's legal team's claim that the rules of the prison did not allow for Gilligan to be held in this "bunker", Mr Justice McKechnie said it is for the prison governor to organise where the prisoners are housed.

He also said he believed that Gilligan's being held in the "bunker" area was not in any way an additive part to the punishment.

On the matter of Gilligan's legal team citing the fact that Gilligan was not given access to a solicitor in relation to the charges, Mr Justice McKechnie said that while there were some cases where the presence of a solicitor would be necessary, in this case it would be "highly detrimental" to the operation of a prison sentence.

Having ruled that fair procedures were applied in this case and dealt with and having rejected all of the presented grounds for seeking leave to appeal, Mr Justice McKechnie refused the application.

Gilligan was sentenced last month to 28 years in prison after being convicted of importing and having cannabis resin for sale and supply.

He was acquitted of the murder of journalist Veronica Guerin.