No jail for woman who used child to smuggle drugs into prison

A Wicklow woman who attempted to smuggle heroin into Mountjoy Prison concealed in a child’s pocket has been given an 18-month suspended sentence.

Collette Hyland (aged 23) had agreed to bring the child to visit its father in prison as a favour but was then pressurised to bring in drugs or else the inmate would be beaten up.

Hyland, with an address at Monastery Grove, Enniskerry, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to conveying heroin into the prison on August 30, 2008. She has no previous convictions and is a single woman with no children of her own.

Judge Martin Nolan noted it was a serious offence but took into account her previous good character and early guilty plea. He imposed an 18-month sentence which he suspended in full.

Garda Michael Coyne told Mr James Dwyer BL, prosecuting, that a drug dog indicated Hyland by sitting beside her as she entered the prison with the child in her arms. Prison officers asked her if she had anything to hand over and she reached into the child’s pocket and produced a package.

The package was found to contain heroin with a street value of €1,996.

Hyland was arrested and admitted she was bringing in the drugs as a favour to an acquaintance. She said the mother of the child had asked her to bring the child to see its father, who had recently suffered a bereavement.

She said she had agreed as she felt sorry for him and was not getting paid to do it.

Gda Coyne agreed with Ms Tessa Feaheny BL, defending, that after Hyland agreed to bring in the child, the mother of the child received a phone call and Hyland was then asked to also bring in drugs or else the inmate would be beaten up. Gda Coyne agreed she has not been in trouble since.

Ms Feaheny said Hyland had started abusing drugs after her boyfriend began using them when she was 18 years old. She has since detoxed from heroin and is now drug free.

She said she is now in third-level education and hopes to qualify as a drugs counsellor.