A High Court judge has ordered that photographs of the former equestrian centre owned by the wife of a convicted drug dealer should be taken today or on Monday to ascertain its condition for a court hearing next week.
The Criminal Assets Bureau contends that Jessbrook Equestrian Centre, Enfield, Co Meath, is overgrown and abandoned. The bureau obtained an order in 1996 freezing John Gilligan's assets and is seeking to have a receiver appointed for Jessbrook.
Because the court required up- to-date evidence, the judge directed that legal representatives should attend Jessbrook, each with professional photographers, for the purpose of taking pictures of the property.
Any photo taken by one side should also be taken by the other and a book of photos could be prepared for the court, he said.
The property is owned by Geraldine Gilligan and the bureau wants to appoint a receiver to sell it and other properties owned by Gilligan's son Darren and his daughter Tracey.
Gilligan, who is serving a 20- year sentence for drug-dealing and was in court for yesterday's application, interrupted Mr Justice Kevin Feeney when he was giving his ruling .
Mr Justice Feeney was outlining that another court had ruled the property was the proceeds of crime when Gilligan, sitting in a heavily policed section of the court, shouted: "No it wasn't".
As the judge tried to continue, Gilligan said the judges in the previous case "were in the wrong" before he was asked not to interrupt again.
Mr Justice Feeney rejected an application by Paul Burns SC, for Ms Gilligan, to dismiss the Cab application because a bureau officer had unlawfully entered the equestrian centre and taken photos. Cab says the photos, taken last July and December, show the property in an abandoned state.
Mr Burns said he "strongly objected" to this description and said Ms Gilligan had only received notice of what the bureau was saying about the property on January 16th after she spent Christmas abroad. She had not had time in which to address issues raised in an affidavit by the Cab officer who visited the premises, as it was sent to her lawyers over the Christmas break.
Mr Burns objected to the affidavit being used. He said it showed the Cab officer had unlawfully gained access when it was open to the bureau to get a court order to inspect the premises.
Michael McDowell SC, for the Criminal Assets Bureau, said Ms Gilligan did not live at Jessbrook but in Alicante in Spain. The state of the property should not come as a surprise to her if she was living there.
Mr McDowell said this was a civil case and there was no constitutional prohibition on the use of evidence obtained by the Cab officer in the way he did.
Mr Justice Feeney did not dismiss the case but would not allow the affidavit of the Cab officer to be admitted in evidence. .
The judge adjourned the hearing to next Wednesday and said if no agreement could be reached between the parties about how attendance at Jessbrook should proceed today, they should then both attend at the equestrian centre at 11am on Monday.