A 66-year-old sea captain yesterday spoke of his "great relief" at being found not guilty of conspiracy to import cocaine into Ireland.
Mr Sigurdur Arngrimsson, of Malmo, Sweden, an Icelander, formerly a Lutheran minister, said after his acquittal at Cork Circuit Criminal Court: "When I felt alone during the trial I thought of God. He was with me today.".
Mr Arngrimsson said he intended to retire from the sea and would probably hire a skipper for his cargo boat, the Tia.
The vessel would remain berthed off Bere Island, Cork Harbour, he said, pending further action by his legal team in the Irish Admiralty Court.
"I am hugely relieved by the result. It has restored my faith in the Irish legal profession and system.
"Anything whatsoever to do with drugs is totally against all my beliefs and I asserted my innocence right from the beginning.".
The conspiracy charge to import drugs is believed to be the first of its kind in the history of the State. The trial began on Tuesday and was expected to continue for several weeks.
Most of this week was taken up by legal argument in the absence of the jury. When they were recalled to court yesterday evening Judge Anthony G. Murphy directed them to find the defendant not guilty. "For legal reasons, the trial cannot continue," he said.
The court heard on the first day of the trial that the Tia first came to the notice of the Irish authorities on November 6th, 1996. Mr Ralph Sutton SC, for the State, said the authorities were suspicious and searched the vessel, but found nothing.
The ship had sailed from South America without cargo on October 8th, refuelled in the Azores and left there on October 29th for Ireland.
Mr Sutton claimed holes had been made in the ballast tanks under the cargo hold and there was a plan to import cocaine aboard the ship.
Earlier in the week a part-time fisherman from Youghal, Co Cork, John O'Shea,(44), of Raheen Park, pleaded guilty to conspiring with others between June 30th, 1996, and November 6th, 1996, to import cocaine.
Judge Murphy ordered that the case could not be reported until after the end of Mr Arngrimsson's trial.
O'Shea was employed as a cook aboard the Tia at the time it came to the notice of the authorities.
Judge Murphy said the charge was extremely serious and normally would merit a very long prison sentence.
However, "this man was unintelligent enough to accept favours from people who used him" and he took the "very unusual step" of sentencing O'Shea to 10 years, suspended on his entering a bond to be of good behaviour.