JUDGE CRITICISES LEGAL AID FOR DRUG PEDDLERS

A District Court Judge who assigned the services of a solicitor under
the free legal aid scheme to a self confessed drugs peddler, said it
is outrageous that ordinary hard working taxpayers should have to pay
for the legal defence of such people.

Judge Michael Pattwell said that while the free legal aid scheme is a
necessity there is too much by way of a "handout'' to people under the
scheme which the ordinary taxpayers have to pay for.

"It is outrageous that a man who is admitting to peddling drugs and
who has been earning pounds 150 a week, stands in front of me and asks
me to make an order granting him free legal aid that ordinary workers
must pay for,'' Judge Pattwell said.

"Something is going to have to be done whereby a court can make
these people, and especially drug peddlers, pay back what the court
has spent on them in the granting of legal aid."

Judge Pattwell, speaking at Midleton District Court yesterday when 20
year old Patrick Rolston appeared before him on drugs charges, cited
several categories of ordinary workers whose income tax goes to
finance the legal defence of people like the accused.

Mr Rolston made application for free legal aid and told the court that
while he had been earning pounds 150 a week he is now unemployed and
has no savings.

He pleaded guilty to the unlawful possession of amphetamine tablets
for the supply or sale to others. Garda Sgt. Bill Daly told the court
Mr Rolston was found to have 97 amphetamine tablets with a street
value of about pounds 1,000 in his anorak.

Judge Pattwell said: "He [Rolston] was out to make money on the
misery of others''.

The Judge congratulated Sgt. Daly on his excellent police work that
led to Rolston being "taken out of circulation''. He also praised
the "civic mindedness" of the people who tipped off the police.

He jailed Mr Rolston for four months and fixed recognisance in the
defendant's own bond of pounds 250 and an independent surety of pounds
2,000 in the event of an appeal.