GILLIGAN ON TRIAL FOR DRUGS AND GUNS
But the most stunning aspect of the case came when it emerged that Jonathan Dowdall is now in the process of seeking witness protection.
His legal team told how his life is now “effectively over” and no matter what happens he will likely spend the rest of it looking over his shoulder.
Dowdall and his father are already in protective garda custody, and had been brought to the court via armed escort.
The sheer magnitude of the fact that he is now willing to act as a witness for the State has clearly taken a toll.
Dowdall, looking tired as he sat in the dock, is not in good health, and neither is his father, according to their legal team.
Solitude
While the father-of-four recovers from spinal surgery, his own father is suffering from depression and has significant health challenges that shorten his life expectancy.
Both men sat looking defeated as their defence counsel pleaded for the most lenient sentences possible in spite of the pair both admitting to facilitating a murder.
No matter the outcome of that, the pair’s admissions have dramatically altered the case against Gerry Hutch something his legal team acknowledged yesterday afternoon.
The man known as ‘The Monk’ must now continue to sit in solitude in Wheatfield Prison, awaiting what will be a lengthy and captivating trial.
GANGSTER John Gilligan has been ordered to stand trial later today in Spain on drugs and weapons charges.
The convicted drug dealer (70), prosecuted for drugs offences as part of the investgation into the murder of journalist Veronica Guerin, has been warned he faces more than eight years in jail if convicted.
State prosecutors demanded an 18-month jail term for unlawful weapons possession after a gun Spanish police linked to the crime reporter’s 1996 assassination was found in the back garden of Gilligan’s Costa Blanca home.
Detectives said when he was arrested in October 2020 the gun was the “same make and model” as the one used to kill Guerin in an ambush in Dubin in June 1996.
But Spanish state prosecutors went on to describe it as a Colt Defender and not the rare Colt Python .357 Magnum police identified it as immediately after the Gilligan detention.
Smuggling
Gilligan is also expected to be told prosecutors also want him jailed for another two years if convicted of smuggling cannabis into Ireland, four years for illegally exporting powerful sleeping pills and 10 months for membership of a criminal gang.
His conviction on all four charges could result in a prison sentence of eight years and four months.
His British girlfriend Sharon Oliver and son Darren have also been summoned to stand trial along with his playboy pal ‘Fat’ Tony Armstrong Armstrong.