Lifelong criminal gets 10 years for drug dealing

A lifelong criminal in the drugs trade John Heaphy was yesterday jailed for 10 years for bringing €37,000 worth of heroin into Cork last year.

“It is tragic that a man his age [64] and physical, and attending to psychiatric problems, has to be dealt with in this way but he has given his life to drug sale and supply and this is the harvest he will do,” Judge Seán Ó Donnabháin said at Cork Circuit Criminal Court yesterday.

Detective Garda John Sheedy said he had obtained confidential information of drugs being transported from Limerick to Cork and a surveillance operation was put in place at Halfway, Crossroads, Rathduff, Co Cork, on February 15, 2014.

Gardaí identified a Suzuki 4x4, and when they drove towards it the driver took off at speed until it mounted an embankment and crashed into a large rock.

Heaphy of 59 Kerryhall Road, Fairhill, Cork, was in the 4x4 with another man. While he made no admissions in a first interview with gardaí, Heaphy went on to admit bringing the package to Cork that day.

On a second indictment, he pleaded guilty to the burning of cars in residential areas of Fairhill in May 2014.

Between May 15 and 16 he had set fire to a Toyota Yaris at Kerryhall Road. On May 21 he burned a Nissan Micra at Fairhill. On May 31 at French’s Villas, he caused fire damage to a Honda Civic. On the same date at Fairhill he also set fire to a Volkswagen Passat, a Mazda 6, a Suzuki Swift and Ford saloon car.

He told Detective Garda Alan Johnson he was hearing voices at the time telling him to burn the cars but had no reason for doing so.

Heaphy outlined serious problems he had from his past that prompted him to become an alcoholic with a long-time addiction to “hash, UpJohns, D10s and D5s”.

Heaphy stated yesterday in Cork Circuit Criminal Court: “I tried to kill myself loads of times. I don’t want to die in prison. [Regarding the burning cars] I had nothing personal against these people. They were good neighbours. I didn’t realise at the time I was doing it. All my life seemed to be crumbling in front of me.”

Defence barrister Jane Anne Rothwell said the accused was a pathetic figure as a result of his physical and psychiatric health problems.

“He is going to spend the majority – if not the rest – of his life in custody. He is paying the price for addiction,” Ms Rothwell said.

It had been the second time Heaphy had been caught with drugs when the street value exceeded €13,000. The charge carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years unless there are exceptional circumstances. He served six years for his first conviction of that kind. He was released less than a year when he committed the second.

Judge Ó Donnabháin imposed two years for the arson charges, consecutive to the 10 years but suspended those two years.