An ex-Fine Gael councillor accused of sexual assault by three boys and shot in a punishment-style attack became an assistant to a High Court judge investigating the councillor’s senior party colleagues.
Gardaí allegedly caught Philip Gillick, who died last year, in a public toilet passing around naked pictures of the three underage boys who accused him in court of sexually abusing them at a youth hostel.
The ex-councillor served as tipstaff to the late judge Feargus Flood while Flood was investigating his party colleagues – including former Seanad cathaoirleach, Liam T Cosgrave, who was based in the same Fine Gael branch as Gillick.
‘The trial ended in a hung jury’
Monkstown-based Philip Gillick was elected a Fine Gael councillor for Dún Laoghaire Borough Council at the 1979 local elections. He’d been a member of the party since the mid-1960s.
The Department of Justice employee had been the director of Monkstown Youth Club since the early 1970s and was well known in the local community.
In April 1984 the then 37-year-old Fine Gael councillor was charged with indecently assaulting three boys aged 14, 15 and 16 the previous year at a youth hostel in Aughrim, county Wicklow.
In July 1984 a Circuit Court judge withdrew some of the charges against him, with the trial continuing on two remaining charges of indecent assault.
The court heard during the trial that the alleged victims were identified after a garda had caught Gillick in a public toilet passing around naked pictures of the three underage boys to other men.
Gillick was accused in court of giving the boys alcohol and later groping them at the youth hostel.
The trial ended in a hung jury after the foreman indicated to the court that they disagreed on a verdict. The Ditch understands that a new trial did not take place.
Gillick was back volunteering at Monkstown Youth Club just months after his trial and continued serving as Fine Gael councillor until June 1985.
He was shot in the leg at Seapoint Dart Station in June 1990 and was “pretty vague” when asked to describe his attacker, according to a news article at the time.
The Ditch has established that Gillick was employed as a tipstaff – a court officer who serves as a personal assistant to a judge – to High Court justice Feargus Flood from at least January 1999 until June 2003.
Flood was chairman of the Planning and Payments Tribunal from 1997 until Summer 2003, which investigated allegations of bribery and corruption against Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil politicians.
Liam T Cosgrave, son of ex-taoiseach Liam Cosgrave, was among Gillick’s Fine Gael Dún Laoghaire branch colleagues who were investigated by the Floodt tribunal, where he admitted receiving cash payments from Frank Dunlop.
In 2004 Gillick was appointed as a tipstaff to High Court judge Paul Butler.
Gillick appeared in court in 2009, charged with drink driving. The court was told that the Courts Service employee had soiled himself while being arrested and was more than three times over the legal drink driving limit.
The case was dismissed after the court heard Gillick had not been informed in ordinary language that he was being arrested for drunken driving.
Judge Butler paid tribute to Gillick after the ex-Fine Gael councillor retired from the Courts Service in 2014.
Gillick of Aughrim in county Wicklow died in October 2024.
A spokesperson said the Department of Justice doesn’t comment on individual cases.
