I was sitting in the Special Criminal Court the day Patrick “Dutchy” Holland was being sentenced for dealing in cannabis. As he stood for what seemed an eternity to await his sentence, a well-known crime reporter sitting next to me barracked him with abusive comments.

Even though his remarks could be heard clearly (“You’re going to get yours, Dutchy, you’re going down for a long time; you’ll never shoot anybody else”), neither the judges nor the gardai seemed to notice.

The journalist’s comments were prompted by claims made during the non-jury trial that Holland was the gunman who killed Veronica Guerin a year earlier. But Holland was not charged with her murder. He was tried for drugs offences, convicted on the strength of supergrass evidence and his own, unsigned, contested confession.

When the sentence of 20 years was passed, Holland looked shocked. My vocal colleague went into overdrive and his taunting grew louder. As Holland was being led away he looked down at the media benches and made a remark that another reporter and I heard clearly.

The ranter on my other side didn’t quite catch what Holland said, which didn’t stop him repeating what he thought he heard. “Did you hear what he said?” he asked everybody excitedly. “He said it was just another job!”

Those words have since become part of journalistic and crimeland legend. Whenever they are repeated they are used as evidence of Holland’s callousness. It was supposedly a nonchalant admission that he was, indeed, guilty of the cowardly and greed-fuelled murder of Veronica Guerin.

But that’s not what Holland said. “Youse done your job,” are the actual words he used. To me this meant that the media had decided on his guilt, and helped to convict him, long before the judges had their say. This also tallies with Holland’s relentless insistence in the intervening years that he was fitted up, a victim of a serious miscarriage of justice.

Holland is a nasty piece of work, a career criminal, a ruthless drug dealer. He was a member of a gang that is responsible, at least indirectly, for much suffering and many deaths. And, at the very least, Guerin was among his gang’s victims.

But whether he was the man who pulled the trigger has never been established. He was never charged with that offence and has always denied it. Following her murder, and the linking of his name to the crime, Holland returned from England voluntarily on his solicitor’s advice. He presented himself for interview and, soon afterwards, Holland made a confession that was unsigned and later repudiated, admitting to the drugs offences.

His solicitor was arrested at the same time as Holland and questioned about paperwork relating to the sale of his client’s home in Wicklow. This meant he was not available to Holland during his garda interviews.

Apart from his disputed confession, the only other evidence against Holland was information provided by Charles Bowden, a supergrass and an even nastier piece of work than Holland.

In the course of the 1997 trial before three judges, sitting without a jury, a garda witness mentioned that Holland was the chief suspect for Guerin’s murder. Had such a prejudicial remark been made before a jury, the trial would have been abandoned instantly. But the judges were confident that this revelation could not prejudice them. They later gave him 20 years, reduced to 12 on appeal.

Despite his previous relationship with the media, Holland now believes that co-operation with the fourth estate offers him the best chance of highlighting the injustice he claims to have suffered. Two years ago, he went to the High Court and successfully challenged a prison governor’s refusal to allow him direct access to the press. It seems he may now get his way. Following his release from Portlaoise prison next Friday, he is expected to appear on The Late Late Show.

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