Caretaker hid cocaine at school

A school caretaker who stored drugs in a safe at work will be sentenced later at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.

Bernard O’Neill (aged 38) apologised in court to the school’s principal and staff, to everyone who had entrusted him and everyone he has let down.

Garda John Walsh revealed he found €1,146 of cocaine in O’Neill’s BMW after he stopped the car randomly at a checkpoint and noticed the driver was nervous and sweating.

Gardaí found €464 of cocaine in O’Neill’s bedroom wardrobe and a further €7,400 of cocaine and €1,346 of cannabis along with weighing scales and a spoon in the portable safe at St John’s College, De La Salle, Ballyfermot.

O’Neill, a father-of-two of Cherryorchard Avenue, Ballyfermot and former pupil of St John’s College, pleaded guilty to possessing a total €10,387 of drugs at various locations on January 16, 2009. He has no previous convictions.

Gda Walsh told Ms Caroline Cummins BL, prosecuting, that he had set up a vehicle checkpoint on De La Salle Le Fanu Road and noticed that one driver in a blue BMW seemed nervous and sweating.

Gda Walsh said he searched this vehicle suspecting it contained drugs and found four bags of cocaine in the boot.

The garda told Ms Cummins that he got a search warrant for O’Neill’s home and workplace, where he discovered the rest of the cache.

He added that the janitor’s room containing the safe was not accessible to students.

O’Neill told gardaí he had been holding the drugs found in the safe for someone and the drugs at home and in his car were for personal use.

He denied selling any of the drugs.

Gda Walsh agreed with Mr Paul Comiskey O’Keeffe BL, defending, that his client had an unblemished record and that he owned the safe, which he kept locked.

Mr Comiskey O’Keeffe submitted to Judge Katherine Delahunt that his client had been exposed to the recreational use of cocaine when he was introduced to a new social group.

He said Mr O’Neill blamed the relationship breakdown with his ex-partner for a subsequent cocaine dependency.

Mr Comiskey O’Keeffe further submitted that his client became “indebted to certain people”.

Judge Delahunt adjourned the matter for sentencing in July.