JUDGE: DRUG USERS FUND 'MAYHEM AND MURDER'

OUTSPOKEN District Court judge Michael Pattwell has hit out at drug
users saying they must take "a degree of responsibility" for the spate
of drug related murders that have taken place across Ireland.

Judge Pattwell was speaking during last Friday's sitting of
Mitchelstown District Court, after three men in their mid 20s with
Limerick addresses appeared before him on charges of possession of
drug(s).

Paul Hogan and Johnny O'Donnell from Kilmallock and Patrick Hanley
from Ballylanders, were hit with fines of between EU150 and EU250 for
possession of cannabis at a house in Mitchelstown.

Garda Inspector Tony O'Sullivan said that gardai were called to The
Gorey House in Kilglass, Mitchelstown on April 12 last.

Inspector O'Sullivan said the four people in the house fully
cooperated with gardai and voluntarily handed over cannabis valued at
EU20.

Pleading for leniency solicitor Declan Mowlam pointed out that the
three men before the court had "fully cooperated" with gardai and had
not been in trouble before.

However Judge Pattwell said that even though the amount of drugs in
question was relatively small, it did not take from the fact that by
their actions the three men had helped "line the pockets" of drug dealers.

"This is a message that I have been trying to put across for years. It
is only since the murder of that poor man Shane Geoghegan in Limerick
that people have been listening to that message," said Judge Pattwell.

"The fact of the matter is that end users help to fund this mayhem and
murder. As such you have to take a certain degree of responsibility
for the drug related crimes we read about every week," he added.

The case against a fourth man Declan O'Connell of Rupplagh, Glenroe Co
Limerick, who was charged with unlawful possession of drugs and
possession of drugs for sale and supply, was adjourned until a future
date at the request of gardai.