Eight years in jail for former newsreader

BY OLIVIA KELLEHER 

A FORMER C103 newsreader and presenter who was found to be in possession of €270,000 worth of drugs for sale and supply after he became involved in dealing arising out of a drug debt has been jailed for eight years. 

Pearse McCarthy (52) voluntarily came before Cork Circuit Criminal Court in April on a signed plea of guilty. 

He pleaded guilty that on October 27th, 2017 at a property in Kinsale he had cannabis, cocaine and MDMA for sale or supply when the drugs exceeded a street value of €13,000. 

 Judge Helen Boyle said he had a ‘mid ranking role in an organised criminal enterprise’ even though he had got in to his offending behaviour to pay off a drugs debt.

Defence barrister Jane Hyland said that her client of Red Abbey Court on Margaret Street in Cork city, had spent two and a half years in Coolmine treatment centre in the 1990’s where he addressed his drugs addiction. He relapsed later in life following the sudden death of his partner. 

Det Garda Colin O’Mahony said McCarthy admitted that over the course of two and a half to three years in the drug dealing operation he had handled 90 to 100 kilos of drugs with a street value of up to €2m.  Judge Boyle noted that McCarthy was doing well in prison where he is helping in the kitchen and is a model prisoner. She jailed McCarthy for nine years suspending the last year of the sentence.