The House of Lords in London will hear Mr John Gilligan's appeal against his extradition to Ireland to face charges including the murder of the journalist Ms Veronica Guerin, beginning on October 4th. Granting an extension of custody time to October 11th, in Woolwich Crown Court yesterday, Judge James Rucker said he was satisfied that neither the Lords nor his court could be blamed for a delay in resolving the process of extradition.
Mr Gilligan's two-day appeal to the Lords will be founded in part on his contention that the Crown Court's decision to adjourn his drug-trafficking trial, due to start in London in September 1997, was an abuse of process. He maintains the Crown manipulated the extradition process to give the Garda more time to assemble evidence against him and to hold the drug-trafficking trial in reserve should his appeal to the Lords succeed.
If Mr Gilligan loses his appeal, the extradition process will resume and he could be back in Ireland shortly after the ruling to face drug-trafficking and moneylaundering charges, as well as one charge for the murder of Ms Guerin. If Mr Gilligan wins his appeal and is granted bail, Mr Shane Colleary, for the Crown, pointed out that an abuse of process hearing would begin in the Magistrates Court ahead of the English trial. He had "little faith" Mr Gilligan would remain in Britain to face trial.
His argument that there was anti-Irish prejudice by the Crown was "nonsense. On the one hand he accuses the Crown of anti-Irish prejudice and on the other of partiality towards the Irish," Mr Colleary said.
Imploring the judge to use the example of the Gordian knot and "wield the sword", Mr James Lewis, for Mr Gilligan, said the extension of custody time limits should not be granted. Pointing out that he had spent nearly three years in prison, Mr Lewis said his detention was "an affront to British justice".
On every occasion in court since September 1997, the Crown had relied on a ruling in the divisional court that waiting for the outcome of extradition proceedings was the right approach to take, Mr Lewis went on. The Crown had "sat on their hands" since 1997.
The Crown had not drafted 54 letters of request for Irish witnesses; 27 boxes, alleged to have been "part and parcel" of the drug-trafficking route organised by Mr Gilligan between the Netherlands and Ireland, had not been handed to the defence for forensic examination, and when a request was made to see the labels on the boxes, there was "absolute silence from the Crown".
Turning to the question of State witness Charles Bowden, Mr Lewis said he was "the key" to the Crown's case against Mr Gilligan. Yet on Thursday, during the trial of Brian Meehan, the Special Criminal Court in Dublin had rejected Mr Bowden's evidence. The Crown's "star witness" was in effect "utterly worthless".
Mr Colleary rejected that view, stating evidence against Mr Gilligan had improved since the adjournment of his trial in 1997. He said the Crown would be ready to go to trial, if a date was set after the Lords appeal, and he insisted the Special Criminal Court had accepted parts of Mr Bowden's evidence, relating to drugs and firearms offences. The Crown would also rely on the evidence of State witness Russell Warren.
Answering Mr Lewis's points on the release of evidence to the defence, Mr Colleary said the Irish authorities could not release 40 statements before the two trials relating to Ms Guerin's murder and drug-trafficking. Now they were in the public domain, he could see few problems relating to their possible retention on the grounds of public interest immunity. Furthermore, the 27 boxes were being used as exhibits in criminal cases in Ireland and could not be released and that had been explained to the court in August 1997.