Three months for abuse of gardai and drugs possession

By Martina Nee

A 29-year-old man who became aggressive with gardai after being woken up and who was seen discarding tinfoil containing heroin on another occasion was sentenced to serve a further three months in jail at Galway District Court last week.

Ronan Haverty with an address at 30 Sailin, Wellpark, appeared before Judge Mary Fahy on Monday and pleaded guilty to threatening and abusive behaviour at An Sailin on June 26, 2012, and possession of drugs at Bothar Na Long on May 20, 2012.

Inspector Mick Coppinger told the court that on June 26 gardai received a call at 11.15pm to go to An Sailin in Wellpark where a party had been taking place. The gardai arrived to find the defendant fast asleep. A resident had contacted the gardai after becoming concerned for Haverty who had been making his way to his family home nearby. Gardai also had fears for Haverty’s safety and tried to wake him up, however, Haverty became aggressive and it was necessary to arrest him. The court also heard that on May 20 the defendant was seen dropping a piece of tinfoil on the ground. Gardai retrieved the suspect tinfoil and sent it for analysis which showed results for heroin. The inspector added that Haverty has a large number of previous convictions which includes a two year suspended sentence for burglary which he is now serving.

Defence solicitor Adrian MacLynn explained that his client has been using his time well in Castlerea Prison by attending addiction counselling to deal with his problems with heroin.

“It’s regretable, he is a very intelligent man but he doesn’t use his intelligence in a productive way,” said Judge Fahy, before adding that Haverty still has time to change his life around. Haverty was convicted of the drugs posession charge and sentenced to three months in jail and one month, to run concurrently, for threatening and abusive behaviour.