Accused told farmer not to call lifeguard, court hears

The man who emerged from the sea in West Cork on the morning that €440m worth of cocaine was found floating in choppy waters was given assistance at a local farmhouse and told the farmer there was no need to alert the rescue services - a judge and jury was told today.

Farmer Michael O’Donovan, of Carrigeengour, Goleen, Co Cork, was giving evidence at Ireland’s biggest ever drugs trial at Cork Circuit Criminal Court.

Three Englishmen, Perry Wharrie (aged 48) of Pyrles Lane, Essex, England, Joseph Daly (aged 41) from Carrisbrook Avenue, Bexley, Kent, and Martin Wanden (aged 45) of no fixed abode, all deny the charges of possessing cocaine, possessing it with intent to sell or supply, and having it for sale or supply when its street value exceeded €13,000 on July 2, 2007 at Dunlough Bay, Mizen, Goleen, Co Cork.

Michael O’Donovan heard a knock at the door of his remote farmhouse, where he lives with his mother, at around 7am that morning.

“I didn’t take much notice of it. I heard it again. I got up and went around the back door and I seen a man with a grey tracksuit. He was soaking wet, just like he was getting out of the sea.

“He said his boat was after crashing on to rocks. He asked for something dry to put on him. I gave him dry clothes. He was starting to feel the cold. I gave him tea. I said was there any more on the boat? He said possibly three.

“I just said, how are they, were they after coming ashore? He said the boat was wrecked. He said they were OK. He said: ‘One of my friends swam ashore with me and the other one got into difficulties’.

“I said: ‘I will have to ring the coastguard station to get help’, that he wouldn’t last long in the water that morning.

“He said: ‘No, no, they would be OK’,” Mr O’Donovan testified.

A 26-minute DVD of cameraman Olan O’Brien’s coverage of the Dunlough Bay area for RTÉ on the morning in question showed a semi-submerged inflatable rib-type boat and a lot of white packages floating nearby in very choppy seas with approximately three-metre swells.

The trial goes into its fourth day tomorrow before Judge Seán Ó Donnabháin and a jury of nine men and three women tomorrow.