Judgement reserved in appeal against drugs conviction

The Court of Criminal Appeal has reserved judgement in the case of two men who claim they were “stitched up” by gardaí for the possession of heroin worth €43,000 in a wooded area in Co Cork over two years ago.

Aidan Finnegan (aged 30), with an address at Farranferris, Farranree, Co Cork, and his co-accused, Alan Morrison (aged 31), of Coultry Road, Ballymun, Dublin, had pleaded not guilty to the possession of 215 grams of heroin at Brooklodge Grove, Glanmire on September 5, 2008.

They were each sentenced to 12 years imprisonment by Judge Patrick Moran in July 2009, having been unanimously found guilty of the unlawful possession of drugs by a Cork Circuit Criminal Court jury a month previously.

The pair claimed that they had only gone into the wooded area to urinate, that they had not ventured sufficiently far up the woodland path to encounter the spot where the heroin was stashed and that gardaií had stitched them up.

Counsel for Finnegan, Mr Michael P O’Higgins SC, told the court that the trial judge had erred in failing to properly direct the jury on the definition of possession.

He said the judge had also failed to convey to the jury the State’s requirement to prove that the accused men knew and intended to have controlled drugs in their possession.

Mr O’Higgins said the trial judge’s charge to the jury had also “lacked balance” and had failed to put his client’s case to the jury in a fair and even-handed fashion.

Mr John Aylmer SC, counsel for Morrison, submitted that the evidence with regard to possession of the drugs differed between Morrison and Finnegan and the trial judge had failed to address this to the jury.

At the original trial, the jury had heard evidence from Detective Sergeant Lar O’Brien that Finnegan, who has 42 previous convictions, was observed handing a blue container later found to have contained the drugs to Morrison, who placed his hand inside.

Counsel for the State, Ms Martina Baxter BL, told the court that the trial judge had gone through the defence case carefully and put it fairly and properly to the jury.

Ms Baxter said that given the circumstances of the case, such as evidence that a glove taken from the accused men was found to have traces of heroin on it, inferences could be made with regard to the intent to possess controlled drugs.

Presiding judge Mrs Justice Fidelma Macken, sitting with Mr Justice Daniel Herbert and Mr Justice Daniel O’Keeffe, said the appeal court would return judgement at a later date.