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John Gilligan admits ‘I’m going to hell’ as he recalls life of crime in new TV show

Gilligan admits on Confessions of a Crime Boss: “I wanted to be high profile, not to be known”.

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Notorious gang boss John Gilligan (71) has admitted that he’s destined to go to hell because of his crimes.

Asked in an explosive three-part documentary series if he’s likely to go to hell, the drug trafficker replies: “If there is one, yeah”.

Gilligan – whose gang was responsible for the murder of crusading crime journalist Veronica Guerin in 1996 – tells interviewer Jason O’Toole that he’s going to “tell my side of the story, what exactly happened”.

In 2002, Gilligan was acquitted of the murder of Veronica Guerin, who had earlier been assaulted by the gangster while investigating his activities.

Gillian is described on the Virgin Media show as the first big drug trafficker in Ireland and it details how he became one of the country’s richest criminals.

The crime boss is also described in the programme as a “dangerous psychopath” who “took on the institutions of the state and lost”.

“John Gilligan was a big player at the time in the mid-90s, but he wasn’t as smart as he thought he was,” observers former Assistant Garda Commissioner Michael O’Sullivan.

Gilligan admits on ‘Confessions of a Crime Boss’: “I wanted to be high profile, not to be known”.

Assistant Commissioner O’Sullivan adds: “That all changed with Veronica Guerin”.

Gilligan was given a 28-year prison sentence for the drug trafficking, but on appeal this was reduced to 20 years.

In October 2013 he was released after serving 17 years in jail.

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His assets, including the Jessbrook equestrian centre in Co Kildare, were seized by CAB.

After being injured in an assassination attempt in 2014, Gilligan discharged himself from hospital and left the country to live in Spain.

In 2018 he was arrested at Belfast International Airport and charged with money laundering after being found with more than £22,000 in his suitcase.

Gilligan and two other men were arrested in Spain in October 2020, when cops seized weapons and quantities of drugs. He was released on bail in December 2020 and is still due to stand trial on drugs and firearms charges.

Confessions of a Crime Boss: Virgin Media One Monday 10pm