A 36-year-old man who claims he was forcibly trafficked into Ireland and forced to work in a cannabis grow house was pictured on his iPhone eating crab and drinking red wine at a function in Dublin, the High Court was told yesterday.
The Chinese farmer’s son, who cannot be named for his own safety, has been charged with drugs offences following a raid on a Dublin city centre cannabis grow house. He faces trial next March.
He claims he was locked into the house on Henrietta Street, Dublin, to water plants he did not realise were cannabis plants until he was arrested by gardaí in November 2012.
Barrister Kieran Kelly, for the State, told the court that inconsistencies in the man’s evidence suggested he was an economic migrant and not a victim of trafficking.
Feargal Kavanagh, for the accused, told the court, at an application for his release on grounds his detention was unlawful, that the State was failing in its legal obligations to trafficking victims by prosecuting them for offences carried out under duress.
The man told the court he was forced by “snakeheads”, Chinese gangs that smuggle people across State borders, to work in the grow house.
The Chinese man claimed through an interpreter he had been forced to work in the grow house to repay a debt owed by his family in China. He had no idea the plants were cannabis herb or that they were illegal.
His family had borrowed the equivalent of €20,000 in 2011 and when his father could not repay it the family was physically threatened and death threats were made. Eventually, a group of men arrived at his house and told him that unless he travelled abroad to repay the debt people would die.
He was trafficked over land and by air from Hong Kong to Ireland where he initially worked in Chinese restaurants.
Mr Kelly cross-examined the man about his iPhone photo bank which included a visit to Jurys hotel in Galway and meals, including crab and wine, with people in Dublin.
Mr Justice Gerard Hogan adjourned the matter until Wednesday.