Man gets five years for allowing dealers to store heroin in his house

A chronic drug addict who allowed dealers store heroin in his home in return for getting drugs for personal use has been given a five-year sentence at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.

Ciaran Byrne (aged 36), of Barnwell Drive, Ballymun, had pleaded not (NOT) guilty to possession of the drugs at his home on April 22, 2006 but was convicted by a jury after a three day trial last February.

Judge Desmond Hogan said he was satisfied that there were "ameliorating factors" in this case which allowed him to depart from the presumptive minimum sentence of 10 years' imprisonment applicable to this offence.

Judge Hogan said Byrne was a chronic drug addict in bad health who could not be considered a player in the drugs trade but he provided a "valuable service" to those higher up the ladder. He imposed a sentence of five years imprisonment and suspended the final two years on strict conditions.

Garda Jarvis Burke told Mr Dominic McGinn BL, prosecuting, that gardaí acting on confidential information searched Byrne’s home and found heroin with an estimated street value of €20,000 hidden in a shoe they found on the back patio.

Garda Burke said Byrne had 22 previous convictions including three for drug-related offences.

Defence counsel, Mr Peter Finlay SC, submitted that Byrne was not a "mover or shaker" in the drugs industry and it was commonly known that "addiction causes people to do the most appalling things to their own detriment."

Mr Finlay said Byrne was still in "a vortex of addiction" but had been assessed as suitable for a drug rehabilitation program that would be open to him in the future. He said Byrne was "as much a victim of the drug world as anyone else".