12 rugby fans have cocaine convictions overturned

A total of 12 people labelled by a judge as supporters of the “murderous” drug trade have had their convictions for unlawful possession during last year’s Kinsale 7s rugby event overturned on appeal.

They were part of a group of what Judge James McNulty described as a “parade of graduates and aspiring professionals” who were arrested and charged after being caught with cocaine at the annual rugby event.

Yesterday, another judge allowed their appeals against their fines and convictions, saying “everyone makes mistakes”.

The 29 people arrested in May 2019 included a nurse, a pharmacist, and a law graduate.

They were caught for a variety of offences by undercover detectives mingling with fans of the annual rugby festival.

As well as 60 detections for possession of drugs last May bank holiday weekend at the festival, gardaí also seized about €11,000 in drugs, mostly cocaine.

When he sentenced them, Judge McNulty explained the reason why he convicted them despite the fact that almost all of them had no previous convictions.

He described some of the drug-taking as “openly, shamelessly, and in public” saying “cocaine use or possession is not a trivial offence”.

He said that striking out the initial drug possession charges against them could tend to “trivialise the offence” and that to do so could also end up being seen as “indulgent, tolerance, or acquiescence” that could lead to cocaine possession being accepted as “a lifestyle choice or a recreational option”.

However, in a Circuit Appeals Court sitting in Bandon yesterday before Judge James McCourt, 12 of those who are appealing successfully had their appeals upheld.

In one case, a defendant’s solicitor told the judge his client had “owned up and admitted his stupidity to his parents”, “is running the risk of throwing away all he has worked for”, and that he imagined the accused “has learned a very sanitary lesson”.

In that case, Judge McCourt said:

Everybody makes mistakes and there is not one scintilla of a previous conviction.

“I am going to accept the risk of reoffending must be low.

“And in this case, I am inclined to afford him the benefit of the doubt.”

The 12 defendants will have to give the amounts they were fined to Tabor Lodge Residential Addiction Treatment Centre in Ballindeasig, Belgooly, Co Cork.