SAOIRSE32

By Stephen Breen
Sunday Life
From Sunday 15 June 2008

The heartbroken mother of murdered Bangor woman Lisa Dorrian last night launched plans to stage a massive anti-drugs concert at Stormont.

Sunday Life can reveal that Pat Dorrian has written to top artists such as Snow Patrol, Van Morrison, Donny Osmond, Shane Lynch and Brian Kennedy requesting their support for the one-off gig.

The mum-of-four, who also has spoken to top promoters about the plans, will donate all proceeds from any event to the Northern Ireland Drugs Awareness group.

The plan has been backed by Movie House cinema boss Michael McAdam, who launched a high-profile media campaign at his cinemas to raise awareness of the Lisa’s disappearance.

Also on board is advertising supremo David Lyle, whose own son, Matthew, tragically died from a drugs overdose.

Mrs Dorrian has also enlisted the help of North Down DUP MLA Alex Easton and Bangor Independent councillor Austen Lennon.

The Co Down woman hopes to stage the event on June 12, 2009 — Lisa’s 30th birthday.

The family expect to hear next week if their plan has received the green light from the Assembly.

We also understand the Odyssey complex is under consideration as a possible venue if Stormont is unavailable.

Said the campaigning mum: “This is just an idea I had some time ago and now it’s starting to gain momentum.

“It is my dream to hold this event on my daughter’s 30th birthday.

“My daughter experimented with drugs and I just want to get the message across to young people that drugs are very dangerous.

“If we can help even one family, then it will be worth it.

“People who get caught up in drugs could find themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time and I would hate for anyone to go through the pain that we have endured for the last three years.

“Musicians can send out a powerful message to young people and if we can raise cash for the Drugs Awareness group, then who knows how many people they could help.

“This initiative is still in its early stages and I’m not in a position to state which acts we have approached.

“We have started the ball rolling now because we know it could take up to a year to get this thing organised.”

Mr Lennon, who created the website www.lisadorrian.co.uk, urged local artists to support the initiative.

He said: “I have nothing but admiration for the Dorrians. This is a great idea and I had no problem lending my support to it.

“I know a few promoters and I will do my best to help the Dorrian family organise this event for Lisa’s 30th birthday.

“This family is one in a million and although they are still fighting for justice for Lisa, they want to work hard to ensure that no other family goes through what they experienced.”

And Mr Easton hopes his colleagues in the Assembly will show solidarity with the family, adding: “The family asked for my support on this venture and I was only to glad to do what I could.

“The Dorrian family has been through a terrible time and they deserve great praise for their attempts to remember Lisa, but also to warn other young people about the dangers of drugs.

“I hope that there’s other people in this society who may be able to help the Dorrian family with this exciting, but extremely worthwhile, plan.”

Acts such as Snow Patrol and Donny Osmond previously wore blue ribbons in memory of Lisa.

The 25-year-old Co Down woman went missing in the early hours of February 28, 2005, from a caravan at Ballyhalbert. In spite of 70 extensive searches — 48 on land, six underwater and 16 using body recovery dogs — six arrests, 53 interviews of suspects and more than 3,500 people being spoken to by police, Lisa’s body has never been recovered.

Police, who are still conducting an active investigation, believe that Lisa’s body was moved out to sea some months after she was murdered.

Veronica Guerin’s killers are behind bars or abroad, but the man who tipped them off is back in business and a new breed of criminal is flourishing, says Jim Cusack

**Many onsite links

By Jim Cusack
Independent.ie
Sunday June 22, 2008

JOHN Traynor, the criminal who gardai believe tipped off the Gilligan gang about Veronica Guerin’s whereabouts on the morning of her murder — 12 years ago on Thursday — is back in business.

Veronica Guerin - photo from Irish Abroad

Gardai believe he is still involved in the drugs trade and controls a secondhand car dealership in west Dublin, which is being used to launder drugs money. A convicted drug dealer, who previously worked for the Gilligan gang transporting drugs around Dublin, fronts the dealership for Traynor and his associate and former fellow Gilligan gang member, Peter “Fatso” Mitchell.

Mitchell was tracked down to Puerto Banus in Spain where he was running a pub last month by the Sunday World. The pub has been subsequently closed and both British police and gardai are examining intelligence reports on Mitchell’s activities.

It is almost certain that the Gilligan gang, under new management, remains largely intact — with the obvious exception of Gilligan himself, who is not due for release from prison until April 2013.

Brian Meehan, the only member serving life for murder, has no release date. But given his previous record and his associations with serious crime and trafficking he is unlikely to be considered for parole for a long time.

Patrick Holland, now 69, received an eight-year sentence in London last March after being convicted of conspiring to kidnap businessman Nasir Zahid last year.

Despite his advanced years, Holland had returned to hiring out his services as a gunman and was contacted by the kidnap gang through prison connections. With good behaviour, and Holland is said to behave himself in jail, he will be 75 when he is due for release on parole.

Little is known about brothers Paul and Seamus Ward. Paul Ward, originally convicted of murder, had his sentence overturned and completed a sentence for drugs and rioting inside prison in May 2005. A year earlier, Seamus Ward, along with Peter Mitchell, turned up in an apartment in Amsterdam after police there found 110 kilos of cocaine, two kilos of heroin, ammunition and fake passports in June 2004. There was not sufficient evidence to convict the two, however. The Wards are also believed to be based in Spain, though like the others may be travelling through Europe.

The former gang members proved psychologically weak, particularly Charlie Bowden, who turned State’s evidence against Gilligan and Meehan and named Mitchell, Traynor and the Wards as accessories in Veronica’s murder.

Bowden had begun to crack as a witness under strenuous cross-examination. It was felt his testimony might not have held up under further examination. But had he unravelled completely it could have led to the successful appealing of Gilligan’s and Meehan’s convictions.

With the ending of the main trials, one of the most remarkable garda investigations effectively came to an end. The powerful and highly organised force put together by the now retired assistant commissioner, then Chief Superintendent Tony Hickey, was disbanded.

The detectives returned to detective duties in stations around Dublin, and some to specialist units in the Harcourt Square Headquarters.

The Hickey unit tore apart the largest drug smuggling operation ever to have been uncovered and, on Tony Hickey’s instigation, this led to the establishment of the Criminal Assets Bureau.

CAB is regarded internationally as a great success. Although it has not prevented the drugs trade from flourishing in Ireland, it has made resident criminals pay for their crimes with the loss of their homes and assets.

Twelve years on, John and Geraldine Gilligan are still fighting the sale of their equestrian centre, Jessbrook, outside Enfield in County Meath, but it is seen as only a matter of time before it comes up for auction. Although it has over 100 acres of land, the equestrian centre is isolated from main transport links. At auction it is not expected to make much over €2m or €3m. Interest might also be suppressed because of its associations.

To gardai involved in the investigation, there is disquiet about the path taken by the force in relation to organised crime and drug trafficking gangs since.

Newer, even more ruthless gangs have replaced Gilligan’s operation. Cocaine and heroin have replaced cannabis as the main drug of choice for traffickers as it has less bulk, and so is easier to hide — and most importantly, has a much higher profit margin.

The older members of Gilligan’s gang never touched drugs, though most of the younger members did. Now, most traffickers — many of the biggest being still in their 20s — are cocaine users and that has added to the volatility and violence that has marked gangland behaviour in the past 12 years.

The gardai who broke up Gilligan’s gang say that the response of the gardai to the formation of these new gangs has been haphazard. One described Operation Anvil, which has been touted by gardai as one of the most successful in its history, as being totally ineffective.

Colleagues pointed out that almost every major drug or firearm seizure in the past two years has been attributed to Operation Anvil — though many were made through local investigations by divisional and district drugs units.

After two months of major drugs and firearms seizures this year, cuts in overtime were introduced in several divisions and seizures almost immediately began to fall off.

Since 1996, the gardai have undergone huge examination under the Morris tribunal arising from the corrupt activities of some members in Donegal.

A new system of centralised agent handling recommended by Judge Morris — which detectives were at first highly critical of — has turned out to be a success. Informants are handled at two centres in Dublin and similar methods have been introduced in the five garda regions outside Dublin. A new serious-crime task force, made up largely of young gardai who have shown promise as detectives, was set up at Harcourt Square last year by Assistant Commissioner Martin Donnellan after the spate of kidnappings and gangland killings.

But many of the young detectives, who are undertaking dangerous and arduous work, were simply on secondment from other duties.

This meant they were losing out on promotional prospects as they were officially deemed on temporary secondments.

- Jim Cusack