Convicted drugs dealer John Gilligan has lodged an appeal against the conviction and severity of a five-year sentence for threatening to kill two prison officers and their families.
Gilligan was sentenced by the Special Criminal Court on June 27th to serve two concurrent five-year sentences at the end of the 28-year sentence he is serving for importing cannabis resin.
His solicitor, Mr Joe Rice, told ireland.coman appeal had been lodged with the Court of Criminal Appeal against the conviction and the severity of the sentence.
Mr Rice said Gilligan was looking forward to an early appeal date in the next legal term.
Gilligan had pleaded not guilty to assaulting prison officer Mr Martin Ryan, causing him harm at Portlaoise Prison on March 25th last year.
He had also denied threatening Mr Ryan that he and his family would be killed and making the same threats against another prison officer, Mr Declan O'Reilly.
Gilligan was cleared of the assault charge, but convicted of the threats.
Passing sentence in June, Mr Justice Johnson said the court took "very seriously" the threats uttered by Gilligan to two prison officers after a row over the opening of a prison tuck shop.
"Threats of the nature to have been uttered by a person such as John Gilligan are of the most serious kind," the judge added.
Gilligan is on free legal aid and the State will therefore pay for his legal costs.
:quality(70)/s3.amazonaws.com/arc-authors/irishtimes/64c7504b-f9dd-4cbf-ad7c-534bbb1857e7.png)