Irish gangster John Gilligan acquitted of ordering murder of journalist Veronica Guerin – says guards ‘turned a blind eye’ to ‘sexy’ women visiting him behind bars and that going back to prison ‘doesn’t bother him’

•  John Gilligan, 71, spoke in new book The Gilligan Tapes: Ireland’s Most Notorious Crime Boss In His Own Words
• READ MORE:  John Gilligan says Veronica Guerin’s death ‘did not matter’ to him 

The Irish gangster who was tried for the murder of journalist Veronica Guerin has said guards turned a blind eye to women visiting him behind bars, in a new book.

John Gilligan, 71,  is appearing in a three-part series on Ireland’s Virgin Media channel called Confessions of a Crime Boss, which has caused outrage on the Emerald Isle for ‘glorifying’ a notorious gangster.

At the same time he’s launched a new book The Gilligan Tapes: Ireland’s Most Notorious Crime Boss In His Own Words, where he revealed he fears dying in prison, and that he wishes he had never gone into crime.

The Dublin-born crime boss added that prison guards would ‘turn a blind eye’ to female visitors in prison.

When asked if he ‘revels in his notoriety’, Gilligan replied: ‘No. It’s been a thorn in my side. The real fact is, as I look at myself, I’m a fool! I’ve served close to thirty years. How could I say, “I’m great” when I got caught and was in jail? It’s a myth. 

John Gilligan, 71, is appearing in a three-part series on Ireland’s Virgin Media channel called Confessions of a Crime Boss, which has caused outrage on the Emerald Isle for ‘glorifying’ a notorious gangster

John Gilligan and wife Geraldine in the 1970s

‘It’s crazy for people to think that I feel great over being, for the want of a better word, a gobs***e, doing time in prison’.

Despite saying time in prison ‘doesn’t bother him’ the gangster said he would not like to die behind bars.

‘It didn’t bother me when I got locked up, because it was like when I’d go away to sea in the merchant navy. I think prison, for me, was fairly simple, because my trade was to go away to sea. And the reports saying I didn’t want to go to jail for six months [for assaulting Veronica Guerin] … I would do six months in the shed. It wouldn’t bother me.’

He also said he had no fears about coming face to face with Brian Meehan – the only man imprisoned from Veronica Guerin’s murder. 

Gilligan (pictured) was accused of ordering the murder but was acquitted at trial in 2001. He was instead sentenced to 28 years for smuggling cannabis, and was freed in 2013.

Guerin’s murder led to multiple other convictions. Paul Ward was sentenced to life as an accomplice on the grounds he had disposed of the murder weapon, but the conviction was subsequently overturned on appeal.

Brian ‘Tosser’ Meehan was convicted of her murder and remains in prison, although reports last year said he could be out in just five years after he was transferred from a maximum security jail.

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.

Ms Guerin (pictured) was a crime reporter who had confronted Gilligan about alleged gang activity

The Colt Python revolver used to shoot her by one of two men on a motorbike, which had been loaded with .357 Magnum Semiwadcutter bullets, was never found.

Her funeral was attend by Irish Taoiseach John Bruton, who described her murder as an ‘attack on democracy’ and the head of Ireland’s armed forces.   

‘I’m not worried if Brian Meehan tries to get somebody to give me a dig in the head or something. I’ve no worries, no fears. I wouldn’t be afraid of them. Not for half a second I wouldn’t be,’ he added.

The death of Veronica Guerin:

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 Colt Python revolver used to shoot her by one of two men on a motorbike, which had been loaded with .357 Magnum Semiwadcutter bullets, was never found.

Her funeral was attend by Irish Taoiseach John Bruton, who described her murder as an ‘attack on democracy’ and the head of Ireland’s armed forces.

In the run-up to her assassination, Ms Guerin had filed charges for assault against Gilligan after he allegedly hit her at his £5million equestrian centre in County Kildare in September 1995 while she tried to quiz him about how he made his money.

The judge who acquitted the drugs baron accepted he had made a chilling telephone threat on September 15 1995 to kill her and kidnap her five-year-old son.

The journalist also had shots fired at her house in October 1994.

The following January she opened her door to a gunman wearing a motorbike helmet who shot her in thigh the day after writing an article about another high-profile Irish criminal.

Award-winning Ms Guerin was killed two days before she was due to speak at a Freedom Forum conference in London. The topic of her segment was ‘Dying to Tell the Story: Journalists at Risk.’

Within a week of her murder the Irish parliament enacted two pieces of legislations enabling assets from the proceeds of time to be seized by the government. It led to the formation of the Criminal Assets Bureau.

He went on that prison was easy for him.

‘I could do prison in a dustbin. It wouldn’t bother me. I don’t care where they put me in a prison. Even if I got arrested today for something, and they gave me life in prison and they put me in the dustbin to live, I’d live in it.

‘I had a few very good-looking young girls visit me. I’d be talking to them on the mobile phone in the prison and they’d say, “Can I comedown and visit you?” There was this regular girl who came down to me every second week, and she always dressed really sexy. 

‘She’d be holding me man thing and I’d be feeling her boobs and feeling between her legs and we’d be kissing. But there was a prison officer present at all times in the visiting room when I met you in Portlaoise Prison.

‘The prison officers just turned a blind eye to it and they put the head behind a newspaper.’

John is separated from wife Geraldine Gilligan and is currently dating British girlfriend Sharon Oliver.

It comes as John appeared on the first of a three-part series on Ireland’s Virgin Media channel called Confessions of a Crime Boss.

In the first episode, which aired Monday, he said he felt ‘nothing’ over Veronica Guerin’s death.

Ms Guerin was a crime reporter who had confronted Gilligan about alleged gang activity.

She was shot dead while stopped at a red light on the outskirts of Dublin 27 years ago. 

Her life – and death – was  later turned into a film starring Cate Blanchett as the fearless reporter.

Gilligan was accused of ordering the murder but was acquitted at trial in 2001. He was instead sentenced to 28 years for smuggling cannabis, and was freed in 2013.

At the trial, Mr Justice Diarmuid O’Donovan said of Gilligan: ‘Never in the history of Irish criminal jurisprudence has one person been presumed to have caused so much wretchedness to so many. A haemorrhage of harm that is unlikely to heal in a generation.’ 

When asked about how he felt when Ms Guerin was killed, he said: ‘Nothing really. I could say it for the cameras, ‘oh my God, I was shocked’.

‘I wasn’t. It didn’t matter to me.’

When asked further about the reporting of crime and gang activities, he added: ‘If you go into the kitchen, don’t expect not to be burned.’

However, the crime boss did admit that the journalist’s death was ‘the beginning of the end for him’.

‘It shouldn’t have happened that way to me,’ he said.

‘I wish them people had never done it, for her sake and for her family’s sake, not just for mine.’

The programme has been widely slammed in by both Ms Guerin’s family and by Irish politicians.

Justice Minister Helen McEntee called for the producers of the documentary to ‘think about what they’re trying to achieve’ with the series.

Speaking to the Irish Independent, she explained: ‘This is a man that has created misery for so many people and so many communities.

‘He’s someone who has been convicted of very serious offences and I for one certainly won’t be watching it.’

‘I know there’s a lot of people, families and communities that are very upset by the fact that this documentary is on this evening.’

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