The High Court has dismissed an application by convicted drug dealer John Gilligan directing the Director of Public Prosecutions to charge him with the importation of 104 shipments of illegal drugs.
Gilligan also applied to the High Court for permission to bring constitutional challenges against the Misuse of Drugs and the Offences Against the State Acts and sought orders including that he be released from prison.
The application brought by Gilligan, who is serving a lengthy prison sentence at Portlaoise Prison, was rejected by Mr Justice Brian McGovern on grounds including that the proceedings amounted to a “collateral attack” on a conviction received “over 11 years ago”.
During his trial reference was made to 104 shipments having come to Ireland, he claimed. Gilligan argued that he was never charged with 104 counts of importation of drugs and he wanted to be charged with those offences in order to vindicate his rights and to allow the truth to definitively emerge.
The Criminal Assets Bureau, he claimed, had proceeded on the basis that he had been convicted of 104 counts when applying to take his assets as the proceeds of crime.
Dismissing the application, Mr Justice McGovern said it amounted to a “collateral attack” on a conviction, which was subsequently upheld on appeal by the Court of Criminal Appeal, more than a decade ago. The application, he added, was “vexatious”.