A YOUNG Dublin woman will be sentenced later for her role in possessing €1.37 million worth of heroin in her car after her defence lawyer claimed yesterday that she was merely used as window dressing to give the idea of a boyfriend and girlfriend in a car together.
Det Garda Michael Doherty said that although the car had belonged to Gillian Doyle (20), she did not drive the vehicle and was a front-seat passenger when her boyfriend and his cousin went to a Newlands Cross Aldi car park to pick up a sports bag full of drugs.
Det Garda Doherty agreed with Luan Ó Braonáin SC, defending, that Doyle had been “the most truthful” of the accused during interview.
Doyle, a mother of one, Kiltalown Court, Tallaght, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to possessing almost 7kg of heroin worth €1.37 million for sale or supply at Ballyfermot Avenue, Ballyfermot, on January 23rd, 2009. She has no previous convictions.
Her boyfriend Greg O’Brien (20), Dolphins Road, Drimnagh, with John Paul Cawley (30), Doocastle, Ballymoate, Sligo, and Andrew Meeson (40), Carraroe, Sligo, pleaded guilty to possessing heroin worth €3.27 million at Boomer’s car park, Woodford Walk, Clondalkin, on the same date.
O’Brien’s cousin, Solomon Spencer (19), Lansdowne Gate, Dublin, pleaded guilty to possessing heroin worth €1.37 million at the same location and date.
O’Brien, Meeson and Cawley were previously jailed for 10 years and Spencer received a six-year sentence with the final three suspended for his role.
Det Garda Doherty accepted Mr Ó Braonáin’s suggestion that Doyle had been “less aware of what was going on” than her co-accused. He told Seán Guerin, prosecuting, that he and colleagues with the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation spotted Cawley and Meeson pull up at the Newlands Cross car park in a Nissan Almera during a surveillance operation at the location.
O’Brien, driving Doyle’s Fiat Punto with Doyle as front-seat passenger and Spencer in the back, arrived into the car park about 20 minutes later and stopped beside the other vehicle.
Gardaí spotted some interaction between both parties and followed the vehicles when they left the car park in different directions. Det Garda Doherty told Mr Guerin that colleagues stopped and searched Doyle’s Fiat Punto on Ballyfermot Avenue and recovered a sports bag containing almost 7kg of heroin.
He said gardaí found almost 10kg of heroin worth €1.98 million in the Nissan Almera.
He said Doyle was 18 at the time and had not come to adverse Garda attention since. Doyle found out she was pregnant on the day of her arrest through a doctor who had been called to the station because she had felt unwell during interview.
The detective garda agreed that she had come from a “decent, hardworking family” and had enjoyed family support on each court date.
Judge Yvonne Murphy adjourned sentencing until May.