Man gets five years for 'holding' heroin
A Dublin Theatre Festival employee who was asked by a neighbouring drug dealer to hold heroin valued at €110,000 has been sentenced to five years.
Judge Frank O'Donnell suspended the last three years of this sentence taking into account the defendants age and lack of convictions for an offence of this nature.
Patrick O'Neill (55), single, of O'Moore Road, Ballyfermot was described at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court as an honest, decent, hardworking gentleman by witnesses who said they were privileged to be his friend and shocked at him getting into this trouble.
Judge O'Donnell said the drugs world as a "vicious, cold and dangerous place" and some people are driven by greed to get involved while others are dragged in through their own innocence.
He said the majority of people fall in between these two categories and this is where O'Neill fits in as he was not "totally innocent" and told the gardai he "expected to be looked after".
A young drug dealer who lives near O'Neill's home was the target in an operation which was set in motion on May 3, 2001 through confidential information received by the gardai..
This man was not present when gardai arrived at the house and found O'Neill with some heroin in front of him. A much larger amount was found in a tea canister in the back garden.
O'Neill, who pleaded guilty to having the heroin for supply, admitted to gardai he was caught red-handed and said he was ashamed for being involved.
He was not selling the heroin himself but was afraid to name the person for whom he was holding it.
