HEROIN DEALER JAILED ON TWO CHARGES

A man who was previously sentenced for the manslaughter of an accomplice who
was shot by accident has been jailed for drug dealing.

Wayne Hart was in a van with an accomplice when a loaded firearm was
discharged accidentally some years ago, Judge Joseph Mathews was told at
Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.

Garda Angela Willis said Hart's girlfriend had 57 per cent pure heroin worth
#8,000 concealed in her body when both were arrested following a Garda
surveillance operation on their flat. Gardai had to force entrance to a flat
to get them.

"She could have been killed if the heroin was released from its container,"
Garda Willis of the Dublin North Central Divisional Drugs Unit told Mr Conor
Devally, prosecuting.

Hart (28), with addresses at Upper Dorset Street Flats and at Richmond Road,
Dublin, pleaded guilty to having heroin for sale or supply on August 29th,
1996, and on May 2nd, 1997. He took responsibility for all the heroin.

Det Garda Colman Brennan said gardai from Clontarf had to force their way
into a Richmond Road address after confidential information led to another
surveillance operation on Hart last year.

He barricaded his apartment door with a couch but drugs and drugs
paraphernalia were found. The heroin was 52 per cent pure and was valued
#1,800.

Mr George Birmingham, defending, said Hart had been released on strict
conditions from his sentence on the manslaughter charge. He remained drugs
free while under the conditions but as soon as they were relaxed he returned
to abusing drugs and got into trouble again.

Mr Birmingham added that Hart got himself transferred to the drugs-free
Wheatfield Prison on his current six-month sentence and did not want his
sentence on the heroin charges adjourned because that would mean he would be
remanded in Mountjoy where drugs were available.

Judge Mathews imposed consecutive sentences of three and two years and said
he would review the case on December 7th next to see if Hart could be
transferred to the Coolmine Therapeutic Community then.

"You can eat into the sentence hugely by your own efforts and if you can
prove to me that you are worth a chance I can take a chance and help to have
you restored earlier to your family," Judge Mathews told Hart.

Checked-by: "Rolf Ernst"