The Court of Criminal Appeal has overturned a five-year sentence imposed on convicted drug offender John Gilligan for threatening to kill two prison officers in a prison tuck shop row. A new sentence will be imposed at a later date.
The three-judge court quashed the sentence after finding that it was not proportionate when combined with the 20-year sentence Gilligan is already serving for importing cannabis resin.
Gilligan was in court surrounded by tight security to hear his counsel Michael O'Higgins SC successfully argue that the five-year sentence was too high.
The court will impose a new sentence on June 15th next for the two offences of threatening to kill two prison officers just one week after he was jailed for the drugs offences in 2001.
Gilligan was initially jailed for 28 years by the Special Criminal Court in 2001 but that sentence was reduced by the Court of Criminal Appeal to 20 years. After a lengthy trial which began in late 2000, the Special Criminal Court cleared Gilligan in 2001 of the murder of journalist Veronica Guerin in June 1996 and acquitted him of firearms charges.
He was given a five-year sentence for threatening to kill two prison officers by the Special Criminal Court in June 2002 and the court ordered it to run concurrently with the sentence already imposed for the drugs offences.
Yesterday, Ms Justice Fidelma Macken, presiding at the three-judge court, affirmed the convictions but said the trial court should have had regard to the proportionality of the overall sentence imposed on Gilligan.