DUTCHY'S LONELY END; GANGSTER DEAD Suspected heart attack kills Veronica Guerin killer, 70, in prison cell.

Byline: EOIN REYNOLDS

THE Irish gangster who gunned down journalist Veronica Guerin died in his sleep yesterday in a British jail.

Patrick "Dutchy" Holland, 70, had complained of pains in his arm and chest just hours before he died.

But he insisted on returning to his cell after being given drugs to help him relax.

Yesterday morning at about 6am prison officers tried to wake him but he was already dead.

He appeared to have died of natural causes but the British Prisons Ombudsman will carry out an investigation.

Taxpayers will pay for his body to be returned to Dublin where he will be buried beside his brother.

A postmortem will be carried out before it is released on Tuesday.

Holland, a career criminal, ended his life in Parkhurst prison on the Isle of Wight. He was serving an eight-year sentence for his part in a multi-million pound "honey-trap" plot to kidnap a wealthy businessman.

He was caught out by undercover cops in England who filmed him plotting the kidnap - which would have used a young woman as bait for the wealthy target.

Passing sentence, Judge Henry Blacksell QC said to Holland: "I have no doubt at all about your important role in the commission of this offence.

"You are a man who has been associated with serious crime over a long period of time and have served long periods of imprisonment. You are reaching the end of your life and it may be that you end it in prison, I know not.''

It was the last criminal act in a career spanning five decades.

Despite Holland being named by gardai as the man behind the 1996 murder of journalist Veronica Guerin, he maintained his innocence until he died.

His friend and solicitor Giovanni Di Stefano yesterday vowed to go to the European Court of Human Rights in a bid to have the vile hood cleared of a conviction for handling explosives in 1989.

Mr Di Stefano said: "I have already sent the papers and his death does not prevent me taking the case."

And he repeated claims that Holland was not involved in violent crime. The lawyer, known as the Devil's advocate after representing hate figures including Saddam Hussein, revealed he is to finish an autobiography Holland had been writing behind bars.

He said: "Most of the book is written and I will finish it.

"It is the story of his life from early childhood and will be titled Dutchy."

He added: "Patrick Holland has never killed anyone and did not deal in drugs. Dutchy took a lie detector test which showed he did not kill and was not guilty of drugs. The lie detector told the truth. He was just in the wrong place at the wrong time." Di Stefano insisted the notorious hood was targeted by gardai because of his association with gang boss John Gilligan.

He said: "He wasn't a womaniser, he didn't drink and he didn't do drugs. He was very protective of women."

But Mr Di Stefano conceded: "He was no saint, he did commit a bank robbery or two but he said he hoped he never hurt anyone."

Despite Mr di Stefano's protests gardai insist Holland was one of the most dangerous criminal figures in Ireland's underworld in the early 1990s.

He was also a drug dealer with convictions for possession of vast quantities of cannabis.

Holland was seen by many criminals as a fixer who could act as a go-between for various criminal gangs. But it was as a henchman for Gilligan - the crimelord sentenced to 20 years behind bars for drugs offences - that he really made his name.

Holland organised crime reporter Veronica's murder and showed no remorse for the killing.

The mum-of-one's shooting marked a new dawn in Irish criminality and led to the creation of the Criminal Assets Bureau. In 1997 Holland was named in court as the shooter but was never convicted of involvement in her death.

When jailed that year for possession of cannabis he became the first member of Gilligan's gang to go to prison. Gardai had targeted him in a concerted effort to get Veronica's killers off the streets.

At his trial in 1997 Garda Marion Cusack said she detained Holland "on suspicion of having a firearm at the junction of Naas Road and Boot Road on June 26, 1996 - the date and place of Veronica Guerin's assassination".

Under cross-examination she added: "I formed the opinion that he was the man who shot her dead. "I was aware he was being sought for her murder. "When I saw him coming through the port I was of the opinion he had murdered Veronica Guerin. As a result I arrested him."

CAPTION(S):

END OF TERM Gangster Holland was found dead in his cell in Parkhurst prison HORROR Veronica Guerin was shot dead LETTER OF THE LAW Outside London's Royal Courts Of Justice REPRESENTATIVE With his solicitor Giovanni Di Stefano TO THE POINT Holland was a notorious criminal HEAD STRONG He was in trouble with the law on both ides of the Irish Sea ADAMANT Taking polygraph with expert Jeremy Barrett over the Veronica Guerin killing