Teen introduced to heroin ‘to take the pain away’

A teenager grieving after her father’s death was introduced to “something to take the pain away” by a neighbour and this resulted in a 10-year heroin addiction.

Diarmuid Kelleher, solicitor, said Andrea Simonicova, aged 29, was living in Cork City with her parents, who came to Ireland when she was a child.

Mr Kelleher said her father was an architect in Prague but got cancer and died when his daughter was 16 years old.