A Belgian resident who used CS gas to escape custody while facing drugs charges in Ireland has been jailed for seven years by Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.
The 60 year-old, who flew into Dublin Airport with over €88,000 of cocaine taped to oversize shoes, was receiving medical treatment in Tallaght Hospital when he sprayed gas into the faces of two prison officers and fled on foot.
Frantisek Telcik, of Lovendegem, Belgium, pleaded guilty to possessing €88,910 worth of cocaine for sale or supply on October 16th, 2003, at Dublin Airport, and to two counts of assault on prison officers and escape from custody on May 13th, 2004, at Tallaght Hospital.
Det Sgt Martin Halpin, of Santry Drugs Unit, told Ms Caroline Biggs, prosecuting, that Telcik was stopped on arrival from Amsterdam by customs officials suspicious of the size 11 shoes he was wearing on his size seven feet. Packages containing 889 grams of cocaine were found taped and glued to the inside soles and heels of the shoes.
Telcik told gardaí the shoes were not his but were given to him by a man named Otto in Amsterdam. He was being paid £2,000 to deliver the shoes to a person in London whose identity would be revealed to him upon successful clearance of Dublin customs.
Judge Desmond Hogan heard that Telcik has two previous drug convictions in Belgium, one of which is under appeal and a further conviction for forgery. A native of Wales, he is married to a Belgian woman and has three children.
Det Garda Christopher Brown told the court Telcik was held in Cloverhill Prison following his arrest and was transferred to Tallaght Hospital for medical treatment in May 2003 in the custody of three prison officers.
His wife and daughter visited him for some hours on the day of his attempted escape. He asked to shower in a bathroom following their departure.
Two prison officers searched the bathroom before allowing him to enter dressed in a hospital gown. They waited at the bathroom door and heard the sound of water running.
Telcik emerged from the room, dressed in black, sprayed the officers in the face with CS gas and fled on foot through the front door of the hospital. He was chased by security staff who captured him in the mortuary yard.
Mr George Birmingham SC, defending, told Judge Hogan his client was a courier who had been carrying out instructions rather than making decision.