Patrick Holland (criminal)
Encyclopedia
Patrick Eugene "Dutchy" Holland (died HMP Parkshurst, 6 June 2009), was a career Irish
criminal, best known for being the first person accused of killing Irish investigative journalist Veronica Guerin
, which he denied until his death in prison in England
.
Holland was born in Inchicore
, Dublin. A skilled Association football player, he spent time in the United States
, where he joined the US Marine Corps.
Returning to Ireland in the 1960s, his first conviction for handling stolen goods was obtained at the age of 25, whilst working as the manager of a sausage company. At the time he had sympathies for and associations with both the Irish National Liberation Army
and the Irish Republican Army
.
Having married in his mid 30s, by the mid-1970s he was suspected by the Garda Síochána
of carrying out a number of armed bank raids. In 1981 he was jailed for seven years for armed robbery at a hotel in Ballsbridge
. Released after four years, in 1989 he was sentenced to ten years for possessing explosives, detonators and fuse wire, allegedly for supply to the IRA.
Whilst in jail, he met John Gilligan and members of his gang, whom he joined on release in 1994. Whilst running a legitimate printing business as the front for a forgery operation, the Gardaí also suspected that Holland became a gun for hire, implicated in but never convicted of the killings of: Patrick Shanahan, shot in Crumlin in October 1994; publican Tom Nevin, shot in Jack White’s Inn, County Wicklow, in March 1996; Jimmy Redden, shot in a pub off Parnell Street, Dublin, in April 1996. Working alongside Charles Bowden
in Gilligan's drugs gang, it was Bowden who supplied the gun which killed Guerin, a meeting attended by Holland.
In 1997 while acting as a Garda witness, Bowden named Holland in a Dublin court as the man he supplied the .357 Magnum
gun to, and hence suspected of shooting Guerin. In the wake of Guerin's killing, a period in which the Garda and the Criminal Assets Bureau
made over 150 arrests to clear up Ireland's illegal drug problem, Holland was arrested at Dún Laoghaire
ferry port on April 9th, 1997. Initially arrested for involvement in Guerin's murder, after an inspection of his premises and assets he was eventually charged for possession and distribution of 10 kilograms (22 lb) of cannabis
. During the trial in Dublin, Gardaí officer Marion Cusack said that she believed Holland was the gunman who killed Guerin in her car. Sentenced to 20 years for drug distribution, it was reduced to 12 years on appeal. The CAB subsequently seized a small house near Brittas
, County Wicklow, in compensation. Whilst in Portlaoise Prison
, he befriended Colm Murphy
, the first person to be convicted in connection with the Omagh bombing
, but was resisted by his fellow members of the Real IRA from entering their area of the jail.
Released from Portlaoise in April 2006, he flew to Rome
, Italy
where his lawyer Giovanni Di Stefano had arranged a series of psychological tests and press interviews, in which Holland strongly denied the murder of Guerin. Invited to appear on the Late Late Show, under public and political pressure the editorial board of RTÉ
vetoed the interview.
Holland began mixing with a major Finglas
drugs gang headed by Martin “Marlo” Hyland
. After the Gardaí raided one of Hyland’s houses and found Holland there, he made his way to England.
In May 2007, a year after being released from jail in Ireland, Holland was arrested by the Metropolitan Police
in London, who were investigating a honey trap plot to kidnap a businessman for a £10 million ransom. After a month-long trial the jury unanimously convicted Holland together with John McDonnell, Gerard Booth and Khan Coombs of conspiracy to kidnap. Whilst serving the subsequent eight year term, he was found dead in his cell at HMP Parkhurst, Isle of Wight
on the morning of 6 June 2009.
After his death, it emerged that Holland was planning to write an autobiography
, having collated his notes via a series of recorded cassette tapes. These were handed by his family to the Irish Sunday Mirror, which subsequently published a series of articles in which Holland claimed that: yes, he was a bank robber by the early 1970s; he had set-up a money-laundering network across Europe to hide his fortune from the CAB; he again denied the murder of Guerin.
Irish people
The Irish people are an ethnic group who originate in Ireland, an island in northwestern Europe. Ireland has been populated for around 9,000 years , with the Irish people's earliest ancestors recorded having legends of being descended from groups such as the Nemedians, Fomorians, Fir Bolg, Tuatha...
criminal, best known for being the first person accused of killing Irish investigative journalist Veronica Guerin
Veronica Guerin
Veronica Guerin was an Irish crime reporter who was murdered on 26 June 1996 by drug lords, an event which, alongside the murder of Detective Garda Jerry McCabe three weeks earlier, helped establish the Criminal Assets Bureau....
, which he denied until his death in prison in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
.
Holland was born in Inchicore
Inchicore
-Location and access:Located five kilometres due west of the city centre, Inchicore lies south of the River Liffey, west of Kilmainham, north of Drimnagh and east of Ballyfermot. The majority of Inchicore is in the Dublin 8 postal district...
, Dublin. A skilled Association football player, he spent time in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, where he joined the US Marine Corps.
Returning to Ireland in the 1960s, his first conviction for handling stolen goods was obtained at the age of 25, whilst working as the manager of a sausage company. At the time he had sympathies for and associations with both the Irish National Liberation Army
Irish National Liberation Army
The Irish National Liberation Army or INLA is an Irish republican socialist paramilitary group that was formed on 8 December 1974. Its goal is to remove Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom and create a socialist united Ireland....
and the Irish Republican Army
Irish Republican Army
The Irish Republican Army was an Irish republican revolutionary military organisation. It was descended from the Irish Volunteers, an organisation established on 25 November 1913 that staged the Easter Rising in April 1916...
.
Having married in his mid 30s, by the mid-1970s he was suspected by the Garda Síochána
Garda Síochána
, more commonly referred to as the Gardaí , is the police force of Ireland. The service is headed by the Commissioner who is appointed by the Irish Government. Its headquarters are located in the Phoenix Park in Dublin.- Terminology :...
of carrying out a number of armed bank raids. In 1981 he was jailed for seven years for armed robbery at a hotel in Ballsbridge
Ballsbridge
Ballsbridge is a suburb of Dublin, Ireland, named for the bridge spanning the River Dodder on the south side of the city. The sign on the bridge still proclaims it as "Ball's Bridge" in recognition of the fact that the original bridge in this location was built and owned by a Mr...
. Released after four years, in 1989 he was sentenced to ten years for possessing explosives, detonators and fuse wire, allegedly for supply to the IRA.
Whilst in jail, he met John Gilligan and members of his gang, whom he joined on release in 1994. Whilst running a legitimate printing business as the front for a forgery operation, the Gardaí also suspected that Holland became a gun for hire, implicated in but never convicted of the killings of: Patrick Shanahan, shot in Crumlin in October 1994; publican Tom Nevin, shot in Jack White’s Inn, County Wicklow, in March 1996; Jimmy Redden, shot in a pub off Parnell Street, Dublin, in April 1996. Working alongside Charles Bowden
Charles Bowden (criminal)
Charles Bowden is a convicted Irish criminal, who after turning state's witness in the murder of journalist Veronica Guerin, was the first person to enter the Republic of Ireland's witness protection programme....
in Gilligan's drugs gang, it was Bowden who supplied the gun which killed Guerin, a meeting attended by Holland.
In 1997 while acting as a Garda witness, Bowden named Holland in a Dublin court as the man he supplied the .357 Magnum
.357 Magnum
The .357 S&W Magnum , or simply .357 Magnum, is a revolver cartridge created by Elmer Keith, Phillip B. Sharpe, Colonel D. B. Wesson of firearms manufacturer Smith & Wesson, and Winchester. It is based upon Smith & Wesson's earlier .38 Special cartridge. The .357 Magnum cartridge was introduced in...
gun to, and hence suspected of shooting Guerin. In the wake of Guerin's killing, a period in which the Garda and the Criminal Assets Bureau
Criminal Assets Bureau
The Criminal Assets Bureau is a law enforcement agency in Ireland, the purpose of which is to recover the proceeds of organised crime. It is a division of the Garda , but reports annually to the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform...
made over 150 arrests to clear up Ireland's illegal drug problem, Holland was arrested at Dún Laoghaire
Dún Laoghaire
Dún Laoghaire or Dún Laoire , sometimes anglicised as "Dunleary" , is a suburban seaside town in County Dublin, Ireland, about twelve kilometres south of Dublin city centre. It is the county town of Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County and a major port of entry from Great Britain...
ferry port on April 9th, 1997. Initially arrested for involvement in Guerin's murder, after an inspection of his premises and assets he was eventually charged for possession and distribution of 10 kilograms (22 lb) of cannabis
Cannabis
Cannabis is a genus of flowering plants that includes three putative species, Cannabis sativa, Cannabis indica, and Cannabis ruderalis. These three taxa are indigenous to Central Asia, and South Asia. Cannabis has long been used for fibre , for seed and seed oils, for medicinal purposes, and as a...
. During the trial in Dublin, Gardaí officer Marion Cusack said that she believed Holland was the gunman who killed Guerin in her car. Sentenced to 20 years for drug distribution, it was reduced to 12 years on appeal. The CAB subsequently seized a small house near Brittas
Brittas
Brittas may refer to*Brittas, Dublin a village in South County Dublin, Ireland*Brittas Bay, a seaside resort in County Wicklow, Ireland*The Brittas Empire, a British sitcom...
, County Wicklow, in compensation. Whilst in Portlaoise Prison
Portlaoise Prison
Portlaoise Prison is the Republic of Ireland's only high security prison. It is located in Portlaoise, County Laois. It should not be confused with the Midlands Prison, which is a newer, medium security prison situated directly beside it....
, he befriended Colm Murphy
Colm Murphy
Colm Murphy is an Irish publican and building contractor who was the first person to be convicted in connection with the Omagh bombing, but whose conviction was overturned on appeal...
, the first person to be convicted in connection with the Omagh bombing
Omagh bombing
The Omagh bombing was a car bomb attack carried out by the Real Irish Republican Army , a splinter group of former Provisional Irish Republican Army members opposed to the Good Friday Agreement, on Saturday 15 August 1998, in Omagh, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. Twenty-nine people died as a...
, but was resisted by his fellow members of the Real IRA from entering their area of the jail.
Released from Portlaoise in April 2006, he flew to Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
where his lawyer Giovanni Di Stefano had arranged a series of psychological tests and press interviews, in which Holland strongly denied the murder of Guerin. Invited to appear on the Late Late Show, under public and political pressure the editorial board of RTÉ
RTE
RTÉ is the abbreviation for Raidió Teilifís Éireann, the public broadcasting service of the Republic of Ireland.RTE may also refer to:* Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, 25th Prime Minister of Turkey...
vetoed the interview.
Holland began mixing with a major Finglas
Finglas
-See also:* List of towns and villages in Ireland* List of abbeys and priories in Ireland...
drugs gang headed by Martin “Marlo” Hyland
Martin Hyland
John Martin Elliott Hyland is professor of mathematics at King's College in the University of Cambridge, England where he is currently head of the Department of Pure Mathematics and Mathematical Statistics...
. After the Gardaí raided one of Hyland’s houses and found Holland there, he made his way to England.
In May 2007, a year after being released from jail in Ireland, Holland was arrested by the Metropolitan Police
Metropolitan police
Metropolitan Police is a generic title for the municipal police force for a major metropolitan area, and it may be part of the official title of the force...
in London, who were investigating a honey trap plot to kidnap a businessman for a £10 million ransom. After a month-long trial the jury unanimously convicted Holland together with John McDonnell, Gerard Booth and Khan Coombs of conspiracy to kidnap. Whilst serving the subsequent eight year term, he was found dead in his cell at HMP Parkhurst, Isle of Wight
Isle of Wight
The Isle of Wight is a county and the largest island of England, located in the English Channel, on average about 2–4 miles off the south coast of the county of Hampshire, separated from the mainland by a strait called the Solent...
on the morning of 6 June 2009.
After his death, it emerged that Holland was planning to write an autobiography
Autobiography
An autobiography is a book about the life of a person, written by that person.-Origin of the term:...
, having collated his notes via a series of recorded cassette tapes. These were handed by his family to the Irish Sunday Mirror, which subsequently published a series of articles in which Holland claimed that: yes, he was a bank robber by the early 1970s; he had set-up a money-laundering network across Europe to hide his fortune from the CAB; he again denied the murder of Guerin.