The Supreme Court has reserved judgment in the latest attempt by convicted drug importer John Gilligan to have his "manifestly excessive" 20-year jail sentence further reduced.
Gilligan was in court yesterday, under tight security, to hear his lawyer argue that his 20-year sentence should be reduced to 12 years.
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 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 also acquitted him of firearms charges.
Gilligan was convicted of possession of an estimated 20,000kg of cannabis resin over a two-year period. He is due to be released from prison in 2011.
Yesterday James Lewis QC, of the London Bar, representing Gilligan, submitted to the five-judge Supreme Court that they had jurisdiction to further review the sentence despite the fact that the Court of Criminal Appeal had already determined the appeal.
He argued that the Gilligan case was not the worst case of drug dealing as it involved cannabis. The worst case would involve heroin, supplying it to children and setting up supply networks.
Mr Lewis said that the 20 years sentence was "manifestly excessive" and that a sentence of 12 years should have been imposed for the drugs offences.
Opposing the application, Peter Charleton SC, for the DPP, submitted that the Supreme Court did not have the jurisdiction to further review the finding of the Court of Criminal Appeal.
He said that Gilligan was "the controlling mind" of the gang involved in all the activities for which he was convicted and there were no mitigating factors in regard to his sentence. There was no evidence that Gilligan was addicted to drugs or desperate. It was not a single instance of importation but six separate instances over a two-year period, he added.
The Supreme Court in a judgment last year held there was evidence before the Special Criminal Court to justify its conclusions that Gilligan, Charles Bowden, Paul Ward, Brian Meehan, Shay Ward and Peter Mitchell were "a gang" engaged in drug trafficking; that Gilligan was the "prime mover" in the importation of cannabis resin into the country; and that he was the "supreme authority" among the gang members and "the largest beneficiary" of the proceeds of the sale of cannabis resin he was responsible for importing.