‘CS gas for sale in newsagents in homeland’

A Russian national coming home from a night out in Cork City was caught with a canister of CS gas in his possession and claimed he did not know it was illegal, as in his country they were commonly available from newsagents.

Alex Pflug, aged 22, of flat 2, 120 Shandon St, Cork, was given a six-month suspended jail sentence at Cork District Court yesterday.

Judge Con O’Leary said that, as far as he knew, CS gas was a much more disabling spray than pepper spray which gardaí were authorised to use.

Pflug said through his solicitor, Joseph Cuddigan, that it was common for Russian schoolgirls to carry cannisters of CS gas in their bags.

Pflug has been in Ireland for two years and has never come to adverse attention of gardaí.

Mr Cuddigan said the Russian he was of good character and he called a character witness, Adrian O’Donoghue, who operates a small business, who stated that he had always found the accused to be honest, straightforward, and sound in his dealings with him.

He added that, far from being a violent person, he considered the defendant to be a person who would run a mile from violence.

Insp Mary King said that Garda Craig Peterson encountered the accused when gardaí, at a routine checkpoint on Patrick’s Quay, Cork, after midnight on November 1, were searching Pflug and his friend in a car.

The canister of CS gas was found in a jacket pocket inside a backpack in the vehicle. It was sent to the forensic science laboratory in Dublin and the orange liquid was classified as an offensive weapon, Insp King said.

Mr Cuddigan said nothing untoward was discovered in so far as the drugs search was concerned. He said the accused had hoped to get Irish citizenship and remain in Ireland but had been unsuccessful in his application.

He now has a one-way ticket to return to Russia.