Andrew Carey
UNDER-FIRE Fianna Fáil spokesperson for justice, deputy Niall Collins has released a statement in the wake of it being made known he asked a judge for leniency in sentencing a convicted drug dealer in Limerick.
40-year old Hugo Porter from Castleconnell was to be sentenced after he admitted his role in a drug dealing operation that netted several hundreds of euro in profit each week.
The unemployed widower with four young children was facing a prison sentence and the court’s consideration of possibly activating a previous suspended sentence for an assault with a broken glass when Judge Carroll Moran was given a letter from deputy Collins urging that the he not impose a custodial sentence for the sake of the four vulnerable children.
Their mother Fiona died tragically in January of this year.
Following the extensive coverage of the issue, deputy Collins released this statement.
“There has been considerable and understandable media comment about my decision to write a letter to the court considering the case of an individual convicted of an offence in Limerick. While I would have preferred to avoid comment until the conclusion of this case, the level of public interest prevents this.
“I fully understand and respect the absolute independence of any sentencing judge in making their decision based on the facts put before them during any trial. If my actions suggest anything other than total respect for judicial independence that is a source of genuine regret”.
“To be very clear I wrote the letter outlining the exceptional circumstances of this family as the four children lost their mother through suicide earlier this year and I truly believed that the Judge should be made aware of these tragic circumstances so that they could be taken into consideration when sentencing. My decision was based solely on compassion and concern for the four children. Sentencing in this case has been deferred until October and I do not intend to speak about it any further.”
Porter will be sentenced in October after the judge hears from the child and family agency on the situation regarding his four children.
