February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
A jury in Dublin Circuit Criminal Court also found Gallagher not guilty of obtaining money on false pretences.
The jury’s verdicts were unanimous after less than two hours of deliberation.
Gallagher, raised in Killiney, denied stealing the three abstract Felim Egan paintings from the Fitzwilliam Hotel on St Stephen’s Green on dates unknown between Nov. 2 and Nov, 22, 2000.
Gallagher broke down in tears when the verdict was issued.
“At long last Gallagher has been vindicated. I hope his innocence is as widely publicized as his guilt,” said Gallagher’s solicitor, Carl Haughton.
Haughton also thanked the jury for its “considered verdict” and said Gallagher was obliged to the help and assistance he had received throughout the trial.
Gallagher had lived in New York for a number of years, where he ran a restaurant and on one famous occasion bad-mouthed Ireland in an interview with a British newspaper, saying he had no intention of ever returning.
Asked by reporters outside the courthouse if he intended to stay in Ireland, Gallagher said: “That’s all I have to say.”
He embraced his counsel Richard Kean and then embraced and kissed his wife outside Court 29 in the main Four Courts building where the trial was conducted.