Young man told to make €1,000 payment before Christmas by Kildare judge
SIMPLE POSSESSION OFFENCES
A man aged in his early twenties was told to make a €1,000 payment before Christmas by a Kildare judge.
The man appeared before Judge Desmond Zaidan at Naas District Court on Thursday, October 12 last.
He admitetd to being involved in three separate incidents committed in County Kildare last year.
In the first incident, he was caught by gardaí of being in possession of €10 worth of cannabis and €70 worth of cocaine.
For the second incident, the man was caught with €70 worth of cannabis and €70 worth of cocaine.
Lastly, for the third incident, he was caught with €10 worth of cannabis.
Speaking to the man's defending barrister, Mark Gibbons, Judge Zaidan remarked: "Your client is a mess."
When it was heard that the man was involved in an apprenticeship: "Even if I imposed a €1 fine on you for these offences, if you wanted to travel abroad for a work visa, you wouldn't get it."
The judge was briefly interrupted by an outburst in the courtroom, to which he directed gardaí to eject the man out of the courtroom.
"He just disrupted my train of thought," the judge angrily remarked, to which the man said 'Sorry, Judge' as he was being led out by gardaí.
Resuming his assessment of the case, Judge Zaidan told the man: "If I send you to prison, you'll eventually get out... but if you get hooked on these drugs, it's a life sentence, young man.
"You're probably thinking: 'Oh, it'll never happen to me', but how do you think all those drug addicts on the streets started out?"
"Small... like me," the man replied.
The judge continued: "If you keep on taking this stuff, something will eventually come up in your life, and you won't be able to cope, you'll start self-medicating (with illegal substances).
"If that's the route you want to go down, you'll destroy yourself."
When he suggested to the man that the gardaí arresting him was 'a blessing in disguise,' the man agreed with him.
"Don't throw your life away," Judge Zaidan said: "The dealer or dealers who gave you this stuff... he or she is not before me today, only you are."
"Yes," the man replied.
The judge further said: "The (illegal) drugs trade targets young people, sometimes as young as 10 or 11 years of age, trying to get them to help them (the dealers) out; that's how evil this trade is."
When he brought up the prospect of imposing a custodial sentence on the man, Mr Gibbons pointed to his client's admissions to gardaí.
"What choice is he going to take?" the judge asked: "If I give him a chance today, will he go off and celebrate by snorting some coke or smoking weed?"
"No, Judge" the man replied.
"So your parents know you're here today?" the judge asked him, to which the man responded: "Yes, they know I'm here, and they're not happy."
"Do you want drug dealers knocking on your parents' door, threatening them?" Judge Zaidan asked, to which the man replied: "No."
When Mr Gibbons suggested that his client could offer a €1,000 donation to a charitable cause, Judge Zaidan said to the man: "It may seem like a lot, but I'm sure you've spend over €1,000 on drugs, am I right or am I right?"
"You're right," the man responded.
Judge Zaidan said that he ultimately would give the man a chance, and told him: "I don't want you to be another victim of the illegal drugs trade... and don't drag your parents into it."
"Thank you, Judge," the man replied.
Judge Zaidan ordered the man to hand over the €1,000 to the court by December 14.
He said that if the man does so, he would apply the Probation Act.