Dad sold drugs to win child's custody
SCHEME: €10,000 worth of cannabis found in his bedroom
Thursday July 24 2008
A FATHER who agreed to sell over €10,000 worth of cannabis to try and raise a deposit for a flat so that he could get custody of his daughter has been jailed.
Jude Sherlock (36) and his partner lived in their car for two months before Sherlock agreed to sell the drugs in the hope of getting a flat.
He appeared before Judge Desmond Hogan at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.
"It was not a long-term enterprise. He did it to get himself and his partner on stable ground," defence counsel Laurence Masterson told the court.
He said Sherlock and his partner had been living in her brother's house but had to leave after her brother's baby died of cot death while Sherlock was looking after him.
Sherlock suffered "enormous guilt" because of the incident and started smoking cannabis again.
Mr Masterson said that Sherlock has since turned his life around and his arrest was "like a wake up call". He was doing seasonal work in horse stables and part-time work as a door man in a pub in Inchicore.
Opportunity
He now has custody of his 10-year-old daughter and Mr Masterson asked Judge Hogan to give Sherlock an opportunity to prove "he was no longer the man he was at the time of his arrest".
Sherlock, of Cappagh Avenue, Finglas West, pleaded guilty to possession of the drugs for sale or supply on Phibsboro Road, Phisboro, on July 5, 2006.
He had 14 previous convictions which included one drug offence and a number of road traffic and public order offences
Judge Hogan said Sherlock had got involved in the enterprise "simply to make money". He imposed a three-year sentence and suspended the last 18 months on conditions, taking into account Sherlock's co-operation with gardai and his plea of guilty.
Garda Neil Cameron told Martina Baxter, prosecuting, that Sherlock said it was his intention to "sell a bit and smoke a bit" of the drugs found in the bedroom of the house he was living in at the time.
- Sonya McLean
