Portlaoise Court: Inmate had drugs for sale inside Portlaoise Prison
Portlaoise Courthouse
A PRISONER who was caught with €1,773 worth of drugs in Portlaoise Prison said he had the drugs because his life and that of his family had been threatened.
Sean Maloney, 20 Ballywaltrim Heights, Killarney Road, Bray pleaded guilty to possessing drugs for his own use and for sale or supply on 21 December 2023 when his case came before Portlaoise District Court.
The court heard that following a search of Mr Maloney, 214 alprazolam tablets, cocaine, cannabis and heroin were found in his possession and that he had 24 previous convictions, mainly for drug offences.
The court was also told that the defendant is four-and-a-half years into a six-year sentence.
A barrister for the defendant said his client "had been holding the drugs because he had a €10,000 drug debt and was under duress to do so.
“Somebody snuck the drugs into the prison and that person has since been before the court. There was a significant threat to his family, so much so that they had to move home and were homeless for eight months.”
The barrister said that his client “has been clean (off drugs) since last April and is making significant progress”.
Judge Andrew Cody said: “Bringing drugs into a prison is a serious matter and one I have to regularly deal with here in this court. It's the scourge of prisons and he was carrying four types of drugs.
“A number of prisoners took very ill last year due to drugs being smuggled into prisons in Portlaoise.”
Judge Cody convicted Mr O'Brien of possessing cocaine and heroin for sale or supply and imposed four-month sentence on each conviction, to run concurrently on the expiration of his current sentence.
He fixed recognisances in the event of an appeal and took the other matters into consideration.
