John Gilligan says Veronica Guerin's death 'did not matter' to him
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Crime boss John Gilligan has said he felt nothing about the murder of journalist Veronica Guerin because her death “did not matter” to him.
Gilligan, the leader of the gang responsible for killing Ms Guerin, has begun telling stories of his life of crime in the three-part Virgin Media documentary, .
In 2001, he was cleared of Ms Guerin's murder but was jailed by the Special Criminal Court for 28 years for importing cannabis resin.
At the trial, Mr Justice Diarmuid O'Donovan said of Gilligan: "Never in the history of Irish criminal jurisprudence has one person been presumed to have caused so much wretchedness to so many. A haemorrhage of harm that is unlikely to heal in a generation."
The first part of the TV documentary aired on Monday, just hours after Gilligan walked free from a Spanish court despite confessing to drugs and weapons charges.
He was handed a fine and suspended prison sentence by a Costa Blanca judge after admitting to smuggling cannabis and powerful sleeping pills and being the owner of a weapon found hidden in the back garden of his Costa Blanca home.
The court heard the convicted drug dealer was treated leniently over the gun find because of a full confession following his 2020 arrest.
In last night's documentary, which has been condemned by politicians for glorifying Gilligan’s career as a criminal, he is asked how he felt when Ms Guerin was killed.
He replied: “Nothing really. I could say it for the cameras, 'oh my God, I was shocked'.
“I wasn’t. It didn’t matter to me.”
On Ms Guerin's reporting of crime gang activities, and her unwavering pursuit to uncover details of his operation, he said: "If you go into the kitchen, don't expect not to be burned."
He also admitted, however, that Ms Guerin's death was “the beginning of the end for me”.
“It shouldn’t have happened that way to me,” he said.
“I wish them people had never done it, for her sake and for her family’s sake, not just for mine.”
Justice Minister Helen McEntee has called for the producers of the documentary to “think about what they’re trying to achieve” by broadcasting the series.
The documentary has also received criticism in recent days from Ms Guerin’s family.
Ms McEntee said Mr Gilligan had caused misery for so many people and that she would not watch the documentary.
“To be quite honest, this is a man that has created misery for so many people and so many communities,” she said.
“I know there's a lot of people very upset that this documentary is on.”