A SHEEP farmer avoided prison after he was given a three year suspended jail sentence for cultivating over €100,000 worth of cannabis plants in forestry clearings on his isolated hillside holding.

Daniel Kelleher (53) from Kilmore, Ballingeary, appeared before Cork Circuit Criminal Court and pleaded guilty to a total of ten different offences including cultivating cannabis at three separate locations on his hillside farm on dates in September 2023.

He admitted growing 52 cannabis plants with a street value of €42,400 at Lyrageeha, Ballingeary, growing 42 plants with a street value of €33,600 at Gurtnakilla, Ballingeary and growing 46 plants with a street value of €36,000 at Derryvaleen, Ballingeary.

Det Garda Shannon Ryan of the Cork County Divisional Drugs Unit told how gardai received confidential information regarding Mr Kelleher’s drug dealing operations in August 2023 and they carried out a number of searches of Kelleher’s property on September 3rd, 4th and 5th, 2023

Det Garda Ryan said when they called to Mr Kelleher’s property he wasn’t at home, but they rang him and met him at Ballingeary Garda Station and brought him to the property where they found stashes totalling 339 grammes of cannabis herb worth €6,084 and €25 worth of cannabis resin.

Detectives arrested Kelleher and brought him to Bandon Garda Station for questioning whereupon receipt of legal advice, he made admissions and was co-operative and told gardai where they could find his cannabis growing operations, said Det Garda Ryan.

He said the accused was cultivating the cannabis in three separate plantations located on clearings deep within the forestry that were only accessible on foot.

The total value of the plants under cultivation was €112,800 while the total value of all drugs seized was €119,609.

During the search of the property, gardai also found a small handgun and an air rifle which were both sent for analysis by garda ballistics experts who found they were both firearms under the terms of the act, but which were both unlicensed, he said.

Det Garda Ryan said that the accused was a single man who had trained as a plasterer and worked in construction for a period but had inherited the small hillside farm from his late uncle and was engaged in part time sheep farming.

‘He was naïve in his beliefs about cannabis – he was proud of how he was growing it but to his credit, he has seen the light and realised that it wasn’t a good thing to be doing and the damage that cannabis can do,’ said Det Garda Ryan.

‘He did not appreciate the gravity of what he was doing growing cannabis and supplying cannabis to others,’ said Det Garda Ryan who confirmed to prosecution barrister, Imelda Kelly that Kelleher had no previous convictions and had not come to garda attention since.

Defence barrister Ben Shorten put it to Det Garda Ryan that Mr Kelleher had told him at interview that ‘I’m not Pablo Escobar’ and Det Garda Ryan agreed but said that ‘he wasn’t Robin Hood either’ and, while he had given some cannabis free to some users, he had charged others for their deals.

Det Garda Ryan also agreed with Mr Shorten when he put it to him that the air rifle had been left to Kelleher by a friend departing for the UK some years earlier while the handgun was a War of Independence weapon found by his late father and neither were linked to his drugs operation.

Judge Sinead Behan agreed with the view that Kelleher was naïve in his views about cannabis. She accepted Mr Kelleher had ‘a misplaced pride in his horticultural abilities’ but it was a serious offence, especially given the quantities involved and merited a headline sentence of three years.

Taking all the mitigating factors into account, she said she would suspend the term in full.