Heroin-dealing son ‘is our rock’

An elderly mother has told a court her 39-year-old heroin dealing son “is our rock”.

At Ennis Circuit Court, Kathleen Greene told the court her son Brian “is really a great son. We are so proud of him.”

She was speaking at the sentencing hearing of the retired garda’s son after he was convicted last month of possession with intent to supply heroin worth €783 at the family home at 2, Corrovorrin Avenue, Ennis, on September 13, 2011.

Mrs Greene said: “We love his very bones. He is our rock and very helpful around the house.”

She said she accepted the verdict her son was dealing in heroin.

“Yes, sadly, I do,” she said. Greene is currently in custody.

The offence was committed while Greene was serving a five-year suspended sentence for heroin dealing, imposed in July 2011 at Dublin Circuit Court.

Counsel for the State, Stephen Coughlan, confirmed to Judge Gerard Keyes that the defendant had since appeared before the Dublin court in relation to committing the offence during the five years, but the judge had decided not to activate the suspended sentence.

He had been involved in a fatal road traffic accident on July 28, 2002, when his passenger and girlfriend, Deborah Hayes, aged 31, of Hartigan Villas, Moyross, was killed.

He received a three-year suspended jail term.

Mrs Greene told the court her son “was devastated” by the death of his girlfriend.

Defence counsel Lorcan Connolly said his client has shown a great desire to conquer his own addiction to heroin. The defendant had travelled to Portugal where he received an insertion of a pellet into his abdomen which resulted in him not being able to get a high when he took heroin.

The effects of the insertion treatment last only four to six months.

Mrs Greene said her son was especially supportive during May 2013 when her 81-year-old husband Pat was diagnosed with throat cancer. She said: “During that time I wouldn’t have been able to cope only for him.”

Judge Keyes said he needed time to consider his judgment and said that he would give it at the next circuit court sittings in April and remanded Greene in custody.