A senior representative of the largest Garda association has said it is completely unacceptable that the Cork Metropolitan region is to get just five recruits — as Garda numbers are already so low there they are only able to “operate fire brigade action”.

SPANISH police testified in Cork that they detained the Lucky Day yacht and arrested the two crewmen on board four days after €440 million worth of cocaine was discovered off the coast of west Cork.

A serial sex offender captured today three weeks after he disappeared on the final day of his trail at Cork Circuit Court has been remanded in custody to appear at Youghal Circuit Court.

A jury took two and a half hours today to return a guilty verdict in the case against a man accused of setting fire to a house of apartments where a young woman died three years ago.

The mother of a young man who was killed in a car crash complained today that victims were forgotten and treated with no importance as she criticised the Director of Public Prosecutions for dropping a dangerous driving causing death charge.

GARDAÍ were last night hunting for a convicted paedophile who disappeared before the end of his trial yesterday.

A fifteen-year prison sentence was imposed today on a West Cork drug dealer who tried to hoodwink a jury into believing that the gardaí had set him up.

A YOUNG woman who fantasised about being the wife of a garda claimed the object of her fantasies had systematically raped and sexually assaulted her over five years, leading to the transfer of the garda to another area.

A GEORGIAN man with Hepatitis C who spat blood into the mouth of a garda who came to his aid after he was assaulted was yesterday jailed for two years.

A stone mason confessed today to conspiring with others to commit an assault on John Butler at Gurranabraher Road, Cork on October 7, 2002.

THE woman who abducted a baby boy at a Cork hospital was back in court yesterday after she fled from her residential treatment programme and ended up coming to the attention of gardaí in Cork city where she was causing a disturbance on the street.

Two gardaí were cleared today on a charge of assault causing harm to a teenager at a holding cell in Gurranabraher garda station in Cork.

An eight-year-old orphan was repeatedly sexually assaulted by a voluntary worker and yesterday the victim said his adult life was haunted by his abuser.

THEIR getaway motorbike broke down and had to be pushed for half a mile, they dropped a mobile phone near the scene of the crime, but the slapstick hold-up for two “nice raiders” ended without tears yesterday, when they avoided jail by getting suspended sentences.

A garda dealing with a late night drunken driver was almost killed when another drunk driver crashed into him at high speed almost killing him, and today the motorist was jailed for four years.

There were violent scenes at Cork Circuit Criminal Court this evening when a traveller was jailed for five years for carrying a sawn-off shotgun.

A jury found a young man accused of dangerous driving causing the death of a man in West Cork guilty as charged by a majority of 11 to 1 after almost four hours of deliberations this evening.

IT was wrong to limit the time a convicted paedophile’s details should remain on the sex offender’s register, a leading child protection group said yesterday.

A serial sex abuser who was a member of a paedophile ring in the Cobh area of Co Cork had his jail time increased today as the latest case against him came up for sentencing.

A doctor who took a blood test from a man in Co Cork, during the Rachel Kiely murder investigation was attacked by this man - wielding a knife - because he blamed the doctor for getting him into trouble.

A Chinese national who was in Cork to learn English was seriously assaulted by two men who knocked him to the ground and kicked him in the head during a protracted assault and today one of the culprits was jailed for five years.

A 10-year jail sentence was imposed today on a drug dealer who was caught getting out of a taxi with a stash of cannabis resin.

A "major player" in the Cork city drugs trade was jailed for five years today for flying cannabis resin in from Spain for sale in Cork city.

A CORK drug dealer who pleaded guilty to supplying drugs yesterday admitted flying cannabis resin in from Malaga for sale in Cork city.

The father accused of sexually assaulting his daughter was found guilty today in what was a unanimous verdict after a three-day trial .

THE leader of a gang who organised a savage attack on the former owner of two massage parlours and threatened him for money in the name of the IRA was jailed yesterday for five years.

“This is D-day. Be prepared to die.”