Gilligan loses bid to overturn drug trafficking conviction

DUBLIN criminal John Gilligan has lost his last legal bid to overturn his conviction on drug trafficking charges.

In an important judgement addressing, for the first time, issues relating to the admissibility of evidence from persons involved in a State Witness Protection Programme (WPP), the five-judge Supreme Court yesterday unanimously rejected all Gilligan’s grounds of appeal and set down criteria regarding how evidence from persons in a WPP should be treated.

Giving judgement, Ms Justice Susan Denham said the issue at the core of the appeal was the credibility of the evidence against Gilligan of three accomplices of his - Charles Bowden, Russell Warren and John Dunne - who were all participants in a WPP.