Cork who man admitted to having €56k of cannabis in shed behind house jailed 

Three kilos of cannabis with a street value of €56,000 were discovered by gardaí during a search of a shed at the back of a house in Cork city, and now a man with numerous previous drug convictions has been jailed for three years.

Detective Garda Michael Abernethy gave evidence at the sentencing hearing for Shaun O’Callaghan of 196 Rathpeacon Road, Cork.

He admitted that on February 27, 2025 at an address on Commons Road, Cork, he had cannabis in his possession for the purpose of sale or supply to others when their value exceeded €13,000 – a quantity that put him at risk of a minimum sentence of 10 years.

However, Judge Helen Boyle set the sentence at five years and suspended the last two years because of all the factors in the case.

Det Garda Abernethy said that on the date in question garda with a warrant went to search the house where the accused was living and found the stash of cannabis in a large black plastic bag in a shed at the rear of the house.

Donal O’Sullivan defence senior counsel said the accused had addiction problems at the time and had since attended at Tabor Lodge and Coolmine, and was actively engaged in treatment. He said his addiction was so apparent that he told gardaí at interview he was not trusted to bag the drugs in case he’d spend the time using the drugs himself.

Judge Helen Boyle said: “It was a significant amount of drugs. It was in a shed, being stored. I accept your plea of guilty is valuable. You brought danger to the owner’s home by storing cannabis at the house without her knowing.

“It is no exaggeration to say that your life has been destroyed by drugs. You have five convictions for having drugs for sale or supply. In mitigation, you signed a plea of guilty. You saved state time and expense of preparing a book of evidence.

“There is a probation and welfare report which makes for very sad reading. You had a bad injury and stopped playing team sports and got involved with a negative peer group. You have a long history of working in the construction industry," said the judge.

“At 33 you have not dealt with (issues related to grief). If you don’t deal with those issues, every time you come up against adversity – unless you deal with your issues head-on - you are not going to get out of the addictive cycle that you are in, relapsing continually.

“I accept you went into residential treatment. Relapse is the big risk factor for you. The probation service are of the view that they will be able to assist you, that they can be of assistance to you. I can depart from 10 years minimum sentence. I will set a headline sentence of seven and a half years, mitigated to five years. And to encourage your rehabilitation and return to society I will suspend the last two years.”