Man seen hiding football filled with €28,000 of heroin jailed

A father of three who was caught by gardaí­ hiding a heroin filled football in a front garden has been sentenced to four years in prison with the final year suspended.

Paul Dempsey (51) had been caring for his son's maternal grandmother when he agreed to hold €28, 517 worth of the drug. He was in the front garden of the woman's Dublin home when Garda Stephen Byrne noticed him acting suspiciously and trying to hide a round object.

A warrant was secured and within the hour the drugs were discovered.

Dempsey, of Galtymore Road, Drimnagh, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to possession of the drugs for sale or supply in Rathmines on May 6th, 2015.

He has previous convictions for road traffic offences and for possession of drugs.

Garda Eoin Hickey told Fiona Murphy BL, prosecuting that Dempsey was arrested the following day. He agreed to give his finger and palm prints but otherwise made no admissions to gardaí­.

A print found on the package in which the heroin was wrapped was later found to match Dempsey’s palm print.

Addiction

Garda Hickey said gardaí­ were satisfied that Dempsey was not the owner of the drugs. He agreed with Seán Gillane SC, defending that Dempsey had previously been in the grip of a heroin addiction and a conviction for possession of drugs in 2000 relates to that period.

Garda Hickey accepted that Dempsey had since relapsed into drug use and developed a gambling addiction. He further accepted that he “may have been taken advantage of”.

Mr Gillane told Judge Melanie Greally that his client "fell prey to heroin abuse in the 1980s at a time when that drug took hold of Dublin city".

Mr Gillane asked the court to accept that while his client had “an important function”, he was effectively minding the drugs. He had since moved in with his ex-partner and her husband and that woman had “an incredibly positive influence on him”.

Judge Greally said Dempsey was not the owner of the drugs but had them for “onward transmission to their ultimate market”.

She acknowledged that he had taken “positive steps” to address his addictions and he had “positive family support”. She suspended the final year of a four year sentence on strict conditions.