‘disappointed’ | 

Veronica Guerin’s brother slams new TV

documentary on crime boss John Gilligan

Gilligan (71) is set to claim in a Virgin Media series that he did not order a hit on the crime reporter.

Today at 09:22

SNEERING gangster John Gilligan’s shameless boasting about his various crime methods in an explosive upcoming TV documentary series was last night blasted by crime journalist Veronica Guerin’s brother Jimmy.

“I’m hugely disappointed that a respected TV station, and indeed some of those involved in the production, would give somebody of Gilligan’s standing three hours of interview time,” Jimmy said.

“Of course I’m disappointed,”

“Was I asked to participate? Of course I was. On more than one occasion. Did I decline to participate, of course I did.

“Was I asked did I want to see it, of course I was. Did I say I wanted to see it, no I didn’t.

He adds: “I wouldn’t be placing an awful lot of concern about anything that Gilligan would say. Naturally I’d be surprised he’d be getting so much airing.”

In a statement issued today, Jimmy Guerin also says:

“I have received numerous requests from the media in relation to the upcoming documentary series to be broadcast on Virgin Media titled “Confessions of a Crime Boss”, along with a new book The Gilligan Tapes.

“The allegations of an amoral individual and a convicted criminal do not merit any rebuttal.

” These issues were covered in detail over twenty years ago in the cases I attended. They were appropriately dealt through the Irish judicial system, which the programme and the book are an insult to.

“I was invited to participate in the making of the documentary and declined. I further declined to attend a preview screening, as I strongly believe providing recognition for this series is entirely inappropriate”

Crime lord Gilligan (71) is set to claim in a Virgin Media series that he did not order a hit on the crime reporter.

Asked in the 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.

Gilligan 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