'Dutchy' Holland Dies in Prison


'Dutchy' Holland


Patrick Dutchy Holland has died in a British prison where he was serving an eight year sentence for his role in a plot to kidnap a businessman and hold him to ransom for £10 million.

He was found dead in his cell in HMP Parkhurst at around 6am today and while a post-mortem has yet to be carried out, it appears that he died from natural causes.

As with all deaths in custody, the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman will conduct an investigation, the UK prison service said in a statement.

Holland had been named in the Special Criminal Court in 1997 as the man whom gardaí believed shot Veronica Guerin but he has never been convicted of her murder.

He lived much of his life in Dublin's north inner city and Finglas.

He first came to the public's attention when, after his arrest in 1997 on drugs charges, the Special Criminal Court heard he was suspected of shooting Veronica Guerin the previous year.

Garda Marion Cusack had told the court she arrested Holland after he arrived at the Dún Laoghaire ferry port on April 9th, 1997, on suspicion of having a firearm at the junction of the Naas Road and Boot Road on June 26th, 1996, when Ms Guerin was shot.

In cross-examination Garda Cusack had said: "I had formed the opinion that Patrick Holland was the man who shot dead Veronica Guerin on June 26th, 1996."

Holland was never convicted of the murder. However, he was convicted of drugs offences relating to the activities of the gang led by John Gilligan.

Holland was sentenced to 20 years which was later reduced to 12 on appeal.

I'm sure Dutchy Holland gunned down Veronica Guerin ... and I will not be silenced by his threats to murder me!

Monday June 22 2009

First things first -- the facts. The late Patrick Eugene 'Dutchy' Holland was a career criminal and an extremely dangerous individual.

Regardless of his denials throughout the years, gardai know, and were 100pc satisfied from the investigation, that Holland was the pillion passenger on Brian Meehan's bike, and it was he who fired six shots at journalist and campaigner Veronica Guerin.

A man with US Marines' experience, he was one of John Gilligan's drug gang, indeed one of the main men in that grouping, and was actively involved in importing drugs into the country during that period.

The reasons as to why he wasn't charged with murder have been made clear. This was because of widespread intimidation of witnesses, including witnesses in Holland. One of the major planks in the case was thereby removed.


Demanded

In our courts it is not enough to walk into a witness box and make a claim, instead admissible evidence must be used. This evidence needs to satisfy the high standards demanded by the courts.

Like my former colleagues, I have no doubt that Holland fired the bullets. I question the motive of some people, including some in the media, who sought to portray Holland as some sort of innocent in relation to the Guerin murder.

He was a manipulative individual, and could be very convincing in person, but no amount of spin could detract from his crime of murdering Veronica. He went to his grave without answering for that deed.

But rest assured as a devout Catholic he knew that he would have to answer for his crimes to a higher court, in the next life.

Ultimately Holland was convicted of the sale and distribution of cannabis and was given 20 years imprisonment by the Special Criminal Court, which was later reduced to 12 years on appeal.

During his time in prison, Holland secured the services of legal adviser Giovanni di Stefano. This individual has claimed to have represented some of the world's most notorious despots, including Slobodan Milosevic and others.

In his latest interview on yesterday's Marian Finucane Show, di Stefano announced that he would have to miss his client's funeral and he was rushing to Iraq to attend a medical operation on Saddam Hussein's pal Tariq Aziz.

It was in this interview and in a posting on his website that di Stefano revealed details of a secret he had kept. He claimed -- if it is to be believed -- that Holland had told him that he intended to kill me in cold blood, in broad daylight, on his release from prison in 2006.

It would appear that Holland's grievance with me was that I had arrested his wife Angela. To the best of my recollection, I don't recall ever arresting Angela Holland.

There were also allegations about this lady's treatment in custody.

As I have said publicly on the Marian Finucane Show that I knew Angela and had met her on a number of occasions, and I found her to be a very decent woman and a loyal wife to Holland.

I am at a loss as to the twisted logic and what warped thinking lay behind the decision by Holland that he intended to exact a revenge upon me. I was at a loss to understand why I was the target of his mad rage and vengeance.

I was aware, of course, that I displeased Holland and di Stefano when I named Dutchy in my Herald column in June 2006 as the man who fired the fatal shots. Through di Stefano, Holland sued the Herald and myself personally for £1m in the High Court in London.

I did hear at the time, through an old and trusted informant, that I should be aware that Dutchy had it in for me, and that I should be very mindful of my own security. It was a warning that I did not ignore.

Needless to say, this matter was frightening for my family, who are always my first priority.

But I had no idea of how real and chilling the threat was until last weekend.


Alarmed

Di Stefano claims to have persuaded Holland to pursue the legal route, rather than the assassination one. Mind you, this person also said that he would not have warned me about the threat.

I wouldn't be human if I wasn't alarmed at these revelations. It's not the first time that my life has been under serious threat, the first one was in the late 70s and there were others.

Former colleagues of mine in the gardai were subject to the same -- and it is very important to point out that there are serious threats live against gardai today.

Criminals just as dangerous as Dutchy Holland have made and continue to make these threats, against officers who are putting themselves on the line to protect society. That was my work once, but today I am no longer a member of the gardai. I now work for the Herald, and I apply the same standards to my work as a columnist as I did to my duties as a detective.

I am not going to be intimidated or silenced. I will not be deterred from writing my opinion, without fear or favour, and I will never countenance being intimidated or threatened by figures in the shadows, from doing my work and living according to my principles.

- Gerry O'Carroll

she got what was coming to her

I remember watching a movie about this gang and the killing of Veronica Guerin! She had some balls boy some real big ball! God rest her soul....