'Naive' woman brought phone into Portlaoise Prison

A woman who wanted to stay in contact with her amputee son admitted trying to smuggle a phone into Portlaoise Prison.

Margaret O’Connor (65) of 12 Church Street, Tipperary town, admitted bringing a blue iphone and charger into Portlaoise Prison on January 7 last.

Garda Troy said she was alerted to a female attempting to bring a mobile phone into the prison on the date in question. She was arrested at 11.10am and taken to Abbeyleix Garda Station where she made no reply after caution. She said the woman had eight previous convictions for road traffic offences and three for public order.

Solicitor Aonghus McCarthy said his client had made full admissions and cooperated with the Gardai.

Mr McCarthy said one of her sons who was serving a lengthy sentence had suffered a serious leg injury in a car crash. He said the woman believed her son wasn’t getting appropriate medical treatment.

He said two of the woman’s ten children had succumbed to addiction and got into trouble. The son who had been in Portlaoise “had an extremely serious accident and had to have his leg amputated,” he said.

Mr McCarthy said the woman wasn’t put under pressure to bring the phone into the prison.

“She felt as a mother that she had to do something to protect her son,” said Mr McCarthy.

He said there was value in her guilty plea and he asked Judge Andrew Gubbins to consider marking the case facts proven and to strike it out.

Judge Gubbins asked if there had been an effort to conceal the phone. He was told there was.

The woman said she hasn’t gone back to Portlaoise Prison since the event.

“I don’t think I can leave you without a conviction,” said Judge Gubbins.

He acknowledged that “it was naive and done with a misguided view” that she was helping her son but said bringing contraband into the prison was a very serious issue. He convicted her and fined her a total of €400 and gave her 12 months to pay.