'˜Almost mind boggling' offending says judge

Daire Watson, Old Fort Lodge, Craigavon, was sentenced to a total of five months in custody last Friday at the local magistrates’ court.

He admitted unlawful possession of cocaine and herbal cannabis on January 9 this year.

The court heard he was stopped by a police mobile patrol and there was a strong smell of cannabis coming from the car.

They found a small quantity of cocaine and Watson handed a large plastic bag containing herbal cannabis to police.

He admitted possession of the drugs but when asked about dealing in drugs he replied no comment.

A barrister representing Watson said there was a question about intent to supply but he was not prosecuted for that.

He added that the defendant asserted he was a family man with three children but if he cared about his children he would not dabble in drugs having received a suspended sentence for the same thing.

The lawyer said that Watson had been advised the breach of the suspended sentence for the earlier offence could put his liberty at risk.

District Judge, Mrs Bernie Kelly, said it was ‘almost mind boggling’ what happened.

She told Watson he had received a suspended sentence in September last year and was told what would happen if he offended again, that he would go to prison and that sentence would have been added on.

The judge said that he re-offended in January which showed he thought so little of his partner and his three children.

She added that she could not ignore this and the possession of a class A drug showed an increase in his offending.

For each of the two charges she imposed a sentence of three months with the terms to run concurrently with each other.

She invoked two months of a three month suspended sentence to run consecutively to make a total of five months in prison.