A DRUGS case, in which gardaí found a small quantity of cannabis during a search, was contested by the defendant on the grounds that she no longer lives in that house.
Helen Stone of Kilnaknappogue, Kealkil, Bantry, challenged all aspects of the evidence presented by Insp Emmet Daly and Det Gda Andrew Manning at Bantry District Court.
In evidence, the detective garda said he had obtained a search warrant on August 26th, 2023 and at 7.30pm that evening members of the Cork West Drugs Unit carried out a search of the house at Kilnaknappogue.
The garda said Sophie Roome Smith, the defendant’s daughter, was home at the time and Helen Stone arrived during the course of the search.
‘I told her we had a search warrant and, in her bedroom, a small quantity of cannabis was found, wrapped in tinfoil,’ said the detective.
He told the court that the defendant made no reply after caution and refused to sign a memo.
The defendant is then alleged to have said: ‘Just because I sell hemp and smoke weed, you think I am a drug dealer, you f***ing asshole.’
In cross-examination by the accused, Helen Stone put it to the detective that while it is her house, she was living in a caravan at the time.
The detective replied, saying the cannabis was found in her bedroom.
Helen Stone put it to the detective that what she actually said was: ‘You think I am a drug dealer, dealing heroin and cocaine’, to which he replied: ‘Yes.’ The defendant’s version was rejected by the detective. He said the memo recorded what was actually said. Helen Stone told Judge James McNulty: ‘I don’t live in the house because I have PTSD because it has been raided that many times.’
She called her daughter, Sophie Roome Smith, to give evidence. She told the court that the cannabis was hers, not her mother’s. ‘She was accused of it, but it was mine,’ she told the judge.
In evidence in her own defence, Helen Stone said: ‘I don’t live in the house and it was not my weed. It is as simple as that. I am now living in a yurt because I have PTSD that has been confirmed by my doctor.’
Judge James McNulty held that Sophie Roome Smith’s evidence was ‘contrived and untruthful’.
‘There may be something in the PTSD, but the court considers the defendant’s evidence to be unconvincing,’ said the judge who fined the defendant €500 for possession of cannabis.
Recognisances were fixed for an appeal.
