AN UNEMPLOYED butcher who was being paid £200 a week to store £118,000 worth of cannabis resin has been remanded in custody for sentence by Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.
Gerard Dornan (32), of Meadow Copse, Dublin, was in "dire financial straits" when approached in a city pub by someone called "Paul", who offered him £200 a week to keep the cannabis.
Defence counsel Mr Eamonn Leahy said Dornan suffered something akin to a nervous breakdown in 1995 as a result of stress from working long hours as a night doorman in a club after his day job in a large supermarket. This breakdown led to him leaving his job, but redundancy money he expected did not materialise.
Dornan had no previous convictions and was unlikely to come to Garda notice again, Judge Cyril Kelly was told by Det Garda Gerard Lawless. Witness said 48 slabs of cannabis were found in a 10 litre tub behind a shed in Dornan's back garden. It weighed 11.87 kilograms and had a street value of £118,000.
Dornan pleaded guilty to possession of the cannabis for sale or supply at his home on February 2nd, 1996.