‘All too rare’ reformed drug user gets suspended sentence

Judge says Gareth Marron appears to have turned his back on crime

Gareth Marron from Kilmore Square, Belfast,  pleaded guilty to possession of herbal cannabis.  File Photograph: Gareth Fuller/PA Wire
Gareth Marron from Kilmore Square, Belfast, pleaded guilty to possession of herbal cannabis. File Photograph: Gareth Fuller/PA Wire

A man who kept drugs for a dealer as a means of paying off a debt has been given a suspended jail term after a judge decided he appears to have turned his back on crime.

Judge Gordon Kerr QC said 23-year-old Gareth Marron was one of those “all too rare of cases” where he is moving on from his past with reports also indicting he was showing “signs of changing”.

Suspending his 15-month term for two years, the Belfast Crown Court judge said Marron’s change “sould be encouraged” and that this could best be served by keeping him in the community.

Marron from Kilmore Square, Belfast, had previously pleaded guilty to possession of herbal cannabis, and having the drug with intent to supply, and possession of diazipan.

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The drugs, including nearly 50 bags of cannabis found in a locked box, were uncovered during a police search of Marron’s bedroom on November 16th, 2012. While Marron had not looked in the box, he knew it contained drugs.

Judge Kerr said it was also accepted Marron was keeping the drugs to pay off a debt to a dealer and that his possession with intent to supply was to return them to that dealer. He added this was a limited nature of supply and there was no direct evidence of financial gain on his part.

The judge said that in mitigation he deserved credit for his guilty pleas, although he bore in mind that Marron had been saught red-handed. Marron, he said, was also regarded as a medium risk of re-offending.