51-year-old man to be sentenced after pleading guilty to several drugs charges

A 51-year-old man is to be sentenced at Derry Crown Court in four weeks time after he pleaded guilty to several drugs charges involving cannabis which the court was told he gave to his elderly father for medicinal purposes.

The defendant, who has been granted anonymity, pleaded guilty to cultivating cannabis plants, possessing cannabis and possessing the drug with intent to supply it. He committed the offences on November 30, 2021.

At his arraignment before Judge Neill Rafferty KC, the court was told that it was a garden shed operation requiring some horticultural expertise. A total of twenty-four cannabis plants were found growing in the shed, all of them seedlings.

Defence barrister Sinead Rogan told the court "he accepts he grew the plants and that he'd given some cannabis to his father purely for medicinal purposes".

A barrister for the Public Prosecution Service said "we accept the basis on which the cannabis plants were grown and who it was for".

Judge Rafferty released the defendant on continuing bail and said he would sentence him for the offences on June 27 following the preparation of a pre-sentence report.