Judge hands down five years to teen for storing heroin

A teenager who stored heroin valued €314,000 in the family sitting room, because he feared a vicious criminal, has been given five years in jail by Judge Frank O’Donnell at the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.

James Walsh (aged 18) of Cherry Orchard Parade, Ballyfermot, got into "heavy debt" with the criminal because of "property" he had found belonging to this man.

Walsh, who didn’t know whether he was holding heroine or cocaine, pleaded guilty to possession of the cache for sale or supply on February 12, 2006.

Garda Tara Corrigan agreed with defence counsel, Ms Caroline Biggs BL (with Ms Isobel Kennedy SC), that Walsh was terrified and was holding the drugs because he had "a financial obligation to a certain man".

Garda Corrigan told prosecuting counsel, Mr Paul Greene BL, that she discovered two bags holding heroin worth over €314,000 and cocaine valued €100.

Ms Biggs said that Walsh, who was 16-years-old at the time of the offence, had a tragic family history.

His ten-year-old brother died of a drugs overdose, his mother also died since his arrest and his father’s alcohol abuse was damaging to the family.

She said that while Walsh was "not of high intelligence" he had completed his Junior Certificate and had worked with his father in his haulage business.

Judge O’Donnell took Walsh’s intellectual and family difficulties into consideration and suspended the last two years of sentence.