A Dublin man has lost his appeal alleging an 18 year jail sentence imposed on him for having €6.4 million worth of heroin in his van was unduly severe.
Michael Byrne (39), Old Tower, Clondalkin, was jailed for 18 years by Judge Frank O’Donnell in April 2010 after he was found guilty by a jury at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court of having heroin for sale or supply.
Byrne, a self-employed tiler, had pleaded not guilty to having 32kg of the drug in the Culmore Road area of Palmerstown on January 15th, 2008.
The court heard Byrne was observed by a Garda surveillance operation unloading the heroin from his van and hiding it in a park.
During the trial, Byrne gave evidence, when he went to pick up his van which he had lent to a friend of his brothers, he saw drugs in the back and panicked. He said he was trying to get rid of the heroin when gardaí moved in and chased him.
Today the three judge Court of Criminal Appeal, comprising Mr Justice John Murray presiding and sitting with Mr Justice Michael Hanna and Mr Justice Gerard Hogan, dismissed Byrne’s appeal against severity of sentence.
Giving the CCA’s judgment, Mr Justice Murray said “no error in principle” was made by Judge O’Donnell in imposing the 18 year sentence on Byrne. The size of the drugs cache spoke for itself, the judge said.
The CCA also rejected arguments that Judge O’Donnell had made remarks at Byrne’s sentencing hearing that suggested he had penalised the accused for running the case.
Judge O’Donnell’s comments to the effect there was little room for sympathy for Byrne were no more than an acknowledgement that Byrne was not entitled to the more sympathetic treatment normally accorded to an accused who pleaded guilty and exhibited
remorse, he said.
The offence of which Byrne was found guilty involved possession of a large quantity of heroin for the purpose of sale and supply and was “extremely grave”, he added.
The sheer quantity of drugs and the type of drugs involved, added to Byrne’s past criminal record which itself was minor in the context of this offence, were aggravating factors in the case, Mr Justice Murray added.
Byrne was at the time of the offence gainfully employed in a steady job but was found in possession of a large quantity of heroin, he said. Byrne’s position was “very different” from those “exploited” by others to work as drug couriers or who were “drug addicts struggling to escape from the terrors of their addiction.”