Don't punish me for having a p

Byline: Aodhan O Faolain

JAILED gangster John Gilligan shouldn't be prosecuted for having a mobile in his prison cell because prison authorities have already punished him, his lawyers claimed yesterday.

The convicted drug dealer, who is serving a 20-year sentence at the maximum security Portlaoise Prison, faces an extra 12 months and a fine if found guilty.

He claims he has already been sanctioned by the prison governor following an internal disciplinary hearing for allegedly having the phone and a SIM card in his cell on July 30, 2008.

But the State argued that the prison sanction, when Gilligan's privileges were suspended for 56 days, does not breach the 'double jeopardy' rule and cannot prevent him facing a criminal trial.

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Yesterday, Gilligan's barrister, Martin Canny, said that the court should not look at the 56-day sanction imposed but the fact that the prison governor had a range of options available to him, such as increasing his time behind bars, which amounted to criminal sanctions.

However, Paul Anthony McDermott BL, for the State, said Gilligan had been subject to an internal prison disciplinary process, conducted in private, designed to maintain good order in prisons, whereas his District Court trial for possession of the phone was a matter of public law.

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Mr McDermott said that if Gilligan's argument was correct, it would mean prison governors would be unable to take disciplinary action against prisoners who had, for example, struck other inmates.

High Court judge Sean Ryan said he would give his judgment on Friday morning.

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