Gangster's girlfriend cleared of drugs rap

Gilligan's lover acquitted on smuggling charge.. after he pleaded guilty & dodged jail

- GERARD COUZENS

GANGSTER John Gilligan’s lover has been cleared of the drug charges he admitted to but avoided jail after a plea bargain. 

He went back to support Sharon Oliver when she appeared via videolink in a Spanish court 24 hours after he was handed a 22-month suspended prison term.

The 71-year-old crime boss admitted owning a pistol buried in the garden of his former Costa Blanca home and admitted running a Spain-to-Ireland cannabis and sleeping pill smuggling ring.

If he had contested the charges and was convicted, he was a facing a lengthy stretch inside.

But Oliver, 61, refused to sign the deal Gilligan and seven accomplices , including his son Darren, accepted last Monday and told Orihuela Court: “I did nothing wrong.”

In a written ruling, judge Francisco Ruiz-Jarabon wrote: “It has not been proven Oliver intervened in the illicit operations carried out by the others.”