Addict gets two years for throwing drugs over Mountjoy wall

A drug addict caught throwing cannabis over the wall into Mountjoy Prison has been jailed for two years by Judge Desmond Hogan at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.

Peter Moran (aged 35), of Brighton Avenue, Rathgar was seen by prison officers Henry Barry and Laurence O'Reilly throwing a blue parcel over the prison wall at about 2.10pm on October 4, 2003.

While they grabbed and held him, the parcel landed inside the wall at the feet of their colleague, John Cassidy. It contained just over 101 grams of cannabis in small slabs, sufficient to make 993 cigarettes.

Moran was taken into custody by Garda Keith Goff who arrived in a patrol car and he was convicted by a jury in January 2006 of having the cannabis for supply. He had 25 previous convictions.

Judge Hogan originally imposed a suspended term on January 27, 2006 on strict conditions but has now activated the sentence due to Moran's failure to abide by the conditions and to co-operate with the Probation Service which re-entered the case.

Judge Hogan said at the 2006 hearing that prison authorities were entitled to run jails without outside interference and Moran had interfered in a serious way by trying to get drugs into Mountjoy, though he failed.