Drug case sentencing adjourned for pensioner

A pensioner who was holding on to heroin worth €150,000 for a drug-dealer has had his sentence adjourned until October 25 at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.

Robert Kinsella (aged 63), of Mount Dillon Court, Artane, pleaded guilty to possession for sale or supply of the drugs on March 15, 2002.

Judge Michael White said he needed time to consider the matter and adjourned sentencing Kinsella until next Friday.

Garda Michael Fitzgerald told Ms Isobel Kennedy BL, prosecuting, that he obtained a warrant to search Kinsella's flat after receiving confidential information.

Gardai were met by the accused and asked him if he had anything illegal on the premises. He denied that he had. A subsequent search of the flat uncovered two brown packages, which were later found to contain heroin.

Kinsella was arrested and made certain admissions in relation to the drugs.

He said he was given €100 by another man to hold on to the drugs. He knew they contained a controlled substance but did not know what the drugs were.

Garda Fitzgerald said Kinsella was an unemployed man but did claim an Old Age Pension allowance. The flat he was living in was OAP accommodation supplied by the Eastern Health Board.

He had a serious gambling problem and this led to the decline of his marriage. His wife only died in the last week.

Mr Anthony Sammon SC, for Kinsella, said the sinister criminals who controlled the drug trade preyed on naive and vulnerable people like Kinsella. They couldn't operate without them.

Garda Fitzgerald told Mr Sammon that the man who owned the drugs would have known about Kinsella's gambling problem and for this reason he was targeted.

He added that Kinsella was paid a very paltry sum but if he had not been apprehended he would have continued to hold drugs for such individuals andwould eventually find himself in the middle of a vicious drug circle.

Mr Sammon told Judge White that his client had no previous convictions, had pleaded guilty at the earliest possible stage and was in poor health. He was therefore entitled to the maximum leniency from the court.

He urged Judge White to detract from the mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years because the evidence indicated that such a sentence would be unduly harsh on someone in Kinsella's position.