Gilligan living in a Dublin hostel
GERARD Gilligan the former US lawyer who was convicted in court here for possessing child porn and had been living rough in Sligo since his release from prison is now living in a hostel in Dublin.
He is living in a hostel in the city according to the Sunday World who the 65- year- old declined to talk to. He spends his days on the streets much like he was doing in Sligo towards the end of last year and at the beginning of this year.
He was being moved from hotel to hotel in Sligo before he ended up sleeping rough. He was jailed for two years in October 2015 from the Circuit Court having been extradited back to Sligo from the US to faces charges of possessing 646 child pornography charges to which he pleaded guilty.
Gilligan claims to have distant relatives in Sligo.
A probation report put him at high risk of re- offending and that he could not control his urges and that he needed treatment.
In 2000 he was jailed for three years in the US for aggravated sexual assault and was released in 2002. He came to Sligo in 2007. The father of four grown up children practised as an attorney in the US for 20 years having qualified in 1979.
The Sunday World photographed Gilligan as he emerged on to the streets of Dublin and sunned himself while enjoying a cigarette near a hostel where he was staying.
Gilligan is in poor health and has become overweight since his prison release. Gilligan was released shortly before Christmas and initially remained in Sligo, where he was moved between hotels and local hostels.
At one point he was given a € 50 a day allowance to find his own accommodation.
After The Sligo Champion highlighted the fact he was sleeping on the streets he left for Dublin by bus.
Gilligan had downloaded the images from a site that had been accessed in 170 different countries and from 140,000 IP addresses.
The investigation was sparked following an Interpol probe in Croatia and traced the purchases of the photos to a flat that Gilligan was living in at the time, at Union Place in Sligo.