Man hid heroin in seat of taxi

A stash of heroin was concealed down the side of a taxi seat by a passenger when he noticed gardaí coming towards him.

Garda Garry Purthill and Detective Garda Aidan Forrest approached the taxi on February 7, 2014, and observed the item being concealed.

They retrieved the package and sent it away for forensic examination. It was confirmed that the package contained diamorphine (heroin) with a street value of €500.

The taxi passenger on that date, John O’Leary, aged 45, of 34 Churchfield Gardens, Churchfield, Cork, pleaded guilty yesterday to a charge of possession of the drug for sale or supply to others.

The father-of-five asked through his solicitor, Shane Collins-Daly, for a non-custodial sentence.

Inspector Michael McGuire said the accused had 25 previous convictions.

Mr Collins-Daly said: “Mr O’Leary has made huge efforts to deal with his heroin problem. He is doing reasonably well.”

Judge Olann Kelleher said: “The bottom line is that he is selling heroin and pleading guilty to it. It is a quite good report on him. The difficulty is that selling heroin in this city is a terrible crime.”

When the judge was reminded of the fact that the accused had five children, he turned to the accused and said, “What about the kids who take the heroin that you supply? What do you think of that? They are somebody else’s children.”

Judge Kelleher added:

“You know the difficulty that heroin does in this city but you don’t care.” O’Leary replied: “I do care.”

The judge imposed a six-month suspended jail sentence on O’Leary.