AN unemployed woman, Ellen Downey, in whose apartment gardai found £100,000 worth of amphetamine, has been jailed for three years by Judge Cyril Kelly in Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.
Paul Enright (30), Downey's husband, was jailed for eight years on January 23rd by Judge Kelly for possession of the drug for supply.
Enright was known to be "actively involved" in drugs dealing, the court was told previously. The haul was the largest amphetamine seizure in Dublin in 1996.
Downey (20), of Palmerstown Woods, Clondalkin had a child by Enright and married him in the year following the Garda raid on their two bedroomed apartment at Parliament Buildings, Dame Street, Dublin.
The £500 a month apartment was rented in her name and she pleaded guilty to allowing it be used for the drugs operation on January 22nd, 1996. The apartment had originally been rented in the joint names of Downey and another woman, and two couples lived there for some time.
Det Garda Margaret Howard said amphetamine was a synthetic stimulant which was usually snorted or could be used to make ecstasy. It was also mixed with heroin to prolong the "hit", or could be used to keep you awake.
She said Downey and Enright were stopped outside the building when gardai moved in to search their apartment. Downey had two bags containing glucose, which would have been used to increase the amount of the amphetamine sold.
Det Garda Howard told Mr Paul McDermott, prosecuting, that both Enright and Downey were put sitting on a sofa when the search began. Enright was noticed trying to push three bags under the sofa.
Ten more bags were under the sofa. They all contained amphetamine powder.
Enright took responsibility for the amphetamine and for £5,000 worth of cocaine found there. Gardai also found £2,445 in a fridge. There were also three mobile phones and a digital weighing scales in the apartment.
Det Garda Howard said Downey had no previous convictions and came from a very decent family who suffered an enormous shock when they learned of this matter. Enright had 14 previous convictions, but none for drugs.
Mr Tom O'Connell, defending, said Downey might look sophisticated but she was a naive and non streetwise young woman who came under the sway of a much older man with a criminal record.
She had a previously unblemished record. But in the two years since doing her Leaving Certificate she got into this trouble, had a child by Enright and then married him.
Counsel said her role was one of pacified acquiescence in the drugs operation. She had spent three weeks in custody and was absolutely terrified of going to jail. The probation report recommended she be dealt with non custodially. She was capable of rehabilitation.
Judge Kelly said that despite the probation recommendation he had no option but to jail Downey. She was fully aware of what was going on and knew from where the £500 monthly rental money was coming.
She was not the first young woman with an unblemished past to become involved with a major drugs operation.
Her parents were rightly distraught at what happened to her. He could believe that their entreaties to her not to marry Enright, 10 years older and with a criminal record, fell on deaf ears.
Judge Kelly said it was clear Enright was by far the more guilty of the two, but the court could not discriminate on sex grounds and did not. Drugs were an appalling problem and had a ripple effect on the whole community, from the need to commit crime to get them.
He could not close his eyes to the way Downey facilitated Enright in this operation. The court could not send out ambiguous messages in these cases.
She was now a mother and must know the damage drugs could cause children. The court would review her sentence on December 18th next.