CASE HALT 

John Gilligan still free man & hopes to get passport back to drive girlfriend to UK for op after case suspended

• 15:15, 4 Oct 2022
• Updated: 19:11, 4 Oct 2022

GANGSTER John Gilligan remained a free man tonight — after turning up to court in his lucky grey suit.

The pint-sized mobster scored a legal victory as his Spanish drugs and weapons trial was suspended following a no-show by his son, Darren.

And instead of prison the convicted drug dealer was told he was hours away from having his passport returned so he can drive his girlfriend, Sharon Oliver, to Britain for an operation.

The unexpected twist in the case occurred after lawyers for nine defendants failed to thrash out a plea bargain deal with the state prosecutor in a behind-closed-doors hearing before a judge ahead of a brief public session.

But it was Gilligan’s outfit that turned heads outside the courtroom in the Costa Blanca town of Torrevieja.

The Dubliner, who was dressed in a light grey suit and white shirt, was accompanied to the hearing by tattooed thug pal ‘Fat’ Tony Armstrong.

Anyone who’s kept a close eye on Gilligan’s past court appearances would have recognised his get-up.

In 2019, Gilligan donned the grey two-piece as he dodged a charge of attempting to remove criminal property in Coleraine Magistrates’ Court.

Gilligan was arrested in 2018 with thousands of euro in cash at Belfast International Airport as he was about to board a flight to Alicante in Spain. But the case was thrown out by the judge.

And it was also his go-to ensemble when he faced a Supreme Court hearing in 2016 as he battled to save Jessbrook equestrian centre from the Criminal Assets Bureau’s clutches.

The on-bail criminal was prosecuted but acquitted of the 1996 murder of investigative journalist Veronica Guerin.

PLEA DEAL

Sources confirmed after today’s trial suspension that a plea bargain deal had been discussed.

But they said the state prosecutor’s offer of a three-year prison sentence for the illegal exportation of powerful sleeping pills, called zimmos, from Spain to Ireland in exchange for confessions had been the main sticking point.

Darren Gilligan’s absence was confirmed when a clerk called the defendants into court for the public session just before midday.

Friends have said he is back in Ireland.

Court officials will now attempt to track him down before he is declared as being in contempt of court and tried in his absence.

The threat of a prison sentence of more than eight years still hangs over his dad’s head following the failure to agree a deal that would have left the trial a mere formality.

State prosecutors are demanding an 18-month prison sentence for unlawful weapons possession for Gilligan after a gun was found in the garden of his expat home in Torrevieja.

There was speculation at the time that it was linked to the assassination of Veronice Guerin.

BALLISTIC REPORTS

However, ballistic reports subsequently found no evidence to support this.

Detectives said when he was arrested in October 2020 the gun was a rare Colt Python .357 Magnum and described it as the “same make and model” as the one used to kill the crime reporter in an ambush at a red light on the outskirts of Dublin in June 1996.

Spanish prosecutors went on to describe it as a Colt Defender and called it an air pistol in a six-page indictment, although sources claimed police had got the right firearm and the indictment contained an “error”.

And they indicated that although it was an air pistol, it had been classified as a handgun because it could be used to fire bullets.

Prosecutors also want Gilligan jailed for two years if he’s convicted of smuggling cannabis into Ireland, four years for illegally exporting the illegal sleeping pills and 10 months for belonging to a criminal gang.

The drugs were allegedly smuggled into Ireland in boxes containing flip-flops and children’s towels.

READY TO PLEAD

It emerged today the 70-year-old Dubliner, seen laughing with fellow Irishman Armstrong as he walked towards court, had indicated in an earlier behind-closed-doors hearing he was ready to plead guilty to certain charges in return for a reduced sentence.

One insider said: “The problem is that although Gilligan puts his hands up to wrongdoing, that’s not going to automatically lead to an acquittal for the other defendants.

“The other issue [is] the concessions the state prosecutor is offering in return for official guilty pleas.

“Defendants are always going to be more likely to accept a deal where there is a significant prison time reduction on offer and that’s not happening here at the moment.”

Judge Jorge Martinez was tonight considering whether to let Gilligan and his girlfriend, who turned up for court separately wearing a black trouser suit and clutching a Chanel handbag, have their passports back so they can travel to England.

The couple’s lawyer told the court in open session that Sharon Oliver needed to head back to her homeland urgently for an operation on a hernia and her partner had to take her by car because she didn’t have a driving licence.

The request was not opposed by the state prosecutor, meaning it could be just a question of hours before Gilligan and his girlfriend leave Spain, albeit temporarily.

TRIAL SUSPENDED

The judge wrapped up the brief public session by saying: “We are going to suspend the trial to April of next year.”

The five lawyers acting for the nine defendants are now expected to continue trying to negotiate a plea bargain deal with state prosecutor Barbara Valero before the rescheduled three-day trial starts on April 17.

They are understood to be open to a deal if the offer on the table is little or no prison time.

Jail terms of two years or less are normally suspended in Spain for first-time offenders.

Police sources said at the time of Gilligan’s arrest in October 2020 that the raid on the drug baron’s villa took place as he was preparing a delivery to Ireland of marijuana and sleeping pills which heroin addicts use to numb pain.

A Spanish National Police spokesman did not name Gilligan in a force statement at the time but said: “Investigators managed to intercept four postal deliveries in Spain in which four kilos of marijuana and 15,000 pills had been hidden.”

The force added in its statement, before it was reported the weapon found buried in his garden was not the one used in the Veronica Guerin murder: “The revolver that has been found is the same mark and model as the one used in the assassination of an Irish journalist in Dublin in 1996. Spanish officers are working with the Irish police to determine if it’s the same gun used to end her life.”

Ms Guerin was working for the Sunday Independent when she was shot dead at a red traffic light on the Naas Dual Carriageway near Newlands Cross on the outskirts of Dublin on June 26 1996.

The gun used to shoot her by one of two men on a motorbike was not found.

Gilligan was acquitted of Ms Guerin’s murder but convicted of importing two tons of cannabis resin worth £32million and sentenced to 28 years in prison, which was reduced on appeal.

Former friend Brian Meehan was convicted of the crime reporter’s murder and remains in prison