Threw drugs into Bantry Bay, jumped in after, but needed rescue

A MAN escaped who from gardaí and then jumped into Bantry Bay, had to be rescued as he wasn’t a good swimmer, Bantry District Court  heard recently.

Danilo Jose, (28) with an address at 14, The Borough, Douglas was approached by gardaí in Bantry on May 11th last, as he sat in his parked car on the Glengarriff Road.

Sgt Paul Kelly told Judge James McNulty that the accused was initially questioned on the matter of Covid-19 restrictions but they found a strong smell of what they believed to be cannabis coming from him and the car.

On searching the car, gardaí discovered a cannabis joint and €1,145.25.

Danilo Jose was arrested and taken to Bantry Garda Station. However, on exiting the car, he pushed the gardaí and ran through the station before reaching the quayside where he reached into his pants and threw an item into the sea. Jose then jumped into the sea, in an attempt to escape.

‘However, Mr Jose was not a good swimmer,’ Sgt Paul Kelly told the court. ‘And he had to be assisted out of the water. He then began struggling and tired to flee again, he was then restrained and brought back to the garda station.’

The court also heard that, under caution, Jose admitted that the item he had thrown into the sea was drugs.

Judge James McNulty said that he had read the report provided by the probation service and that Danilo Jose had, voluntarily and to his credit, informed them that he had a conviction in the UK for theft and conspiracy for theft, for which he had served three-and-a-half years, of a seven-year prison sentence.

Solicitor Donal Daly said that Danilo Jose panicked when he was arrested by gardaí because his partner is ‘anti-drugs’ and that she had told him that she was only with him if he stayed off drugs.

Mr Daly also said that his client had slipped into drug use when he lost his job due to the Covid lockdown back in March.

He is in employment once more, had not touched drugs or alcohol since the incident in Bantry and he had passed two random drug tests.

Judge McNulty said that the probation report is good and states that Danilo Jose is at moderate risk of offending again.

However, Judge McNulty convicted him on the charge of possession of drugs and fined him €300 with six months to pay.

The charge of using a vehicle for a drugs offence was taken into consideration.

On the charge of impeding or obstructing a search, the court convicted and sentenced him to 90 days in jail, suspended on the condition that he keeps the peace, is of good behaviour and commits no offence for a period of two years.

Judge McNulty also added two special conditions – firstly, that he remains under the supervision of the probation service for a minimum of one year.

Secondly, he has to stay out of West Cork for two years.