Son jailed for drug activity in what court heard was 'bizarre case'

A son had taken over the cannabis operation set up by his late father to pay the mortgage, in what the Circuit Criminal Court heard was “a bizarre case”.

The “highly sophisticated cannabis operation” at Rathmore on the Cork border, was one of the main suppliers of cannabis in Killarney, and was funding the family mortgage as well as debts from a failed business, the Circuit Criminal Court in Tralee was told.

The operation in the home of Owen O’Rourke at Gortavehy West, Rathmore, Co Kerry, had spilled over several rooms, according to gardaí who carried out a search of the house on April 18, 2013.

The plants at various stages of cultivation had a potential street value of €160,000 and gardaí said the Rathmore home was “one of the main suppliers of cannabis to the town of Killarney,” Judge Thomas E O’Donnell recalled at the sentencing hearing yesterday.

Owen O’Rourke, of Gortavehy West, Rathmore, pleaded guilty to two counts under the Misuse of Drugs Acts Sections 15 (a) and Section 17 , t of having cannabis with a street value of more than €13,000 and of cultivation.

He took full responsibility for the operation, the court was told by John O’Sullivan, prosecuting.

“It was a commercial operation,” Judge O’Donnell said.

“This is a bizarre case and might be described as the sins of the father,” the judge also said.

The entire operation had been set up by the accused’s father who had died in 2013, the judge recalled.

On his death, the accused, then aged 19, came home from the UK to take over the operation.

“The income was being used to repay the family mortgage and other debts arising out of the failed plumbing business which had collapsed during the recession,” the judge said.

A previous court has been told his mother helped him with growing of the plants.

In 2015, she was prosecuted and received a suspended sentence in Cork for the cultivation.

But “despite the sins of the father,” Owen O’Rourke had taken over the operation quite willingly and had a high level of culpability.

In mitigation, the judge noted he had cooperated fully and had a deep sense of misguided family loyalty.

A father of one, he has no previous convictions.

Judge O’Donnell jailed O’Rourke for a total of seven years - four years for the supply charge and three years for the cultivation, with the sentences to run concurrently.

The prison term has been backdated to November 2018 when he went into custody.