Offaly farmer's appeal against drug importation conviction fails

AN Offaly farmer has failed in his appeal against a conviction for the importation of drugs.

Martin Murray (60), of Crumlin Little, Moneygall, Birr, Co Offaly and Derrycallaghan, Moneygall, Co Tipperary, had been jailed for 10 years for importing €730,000 worth of cannabis which was found hidden in a truck he had been driving on the M7 motorway on June 30, 2017.

At a trial at Tullamore Circuit Court in 2023 Mr Murray pleaded not guilty, claiming he did not know the drugs were on the truck.

Judge Keenan Johnson sentenced the man to 10 years in prison, with the final two years suspended.

During the trial the defending solicitor said the primary defence was “lack of knowledge” by the accused about the drugs being on the truck.

READ NEXT: Proposed new Offaly hospital gets five-year planning consent extension

The first ground of appeal was that during the trial the prosecution led “inadmissible hearsay evidence”.

This evidence was that the gardai had received confidential information about Mr Murray and his lorry and resulting from that information, they had the vehicle under surveillance.

In its judgment, the Court of Appeal said there had been no objection to the admissibility of that evidence by the accused's solicitor during the trial and there was no application to discharge the jury or other relief.

“That could have been raised after the [trial] opening, after a succession of witnesses, and each time a witness adduced the type of evidence in controversy.”

The DPP's legal team submitted to the Court of Appeal that this evidence was introduced during the trial by agreement with Mr Murray’s solicitor, who ran the case without any attending barristers. A senior and junior counsel for the defence had come off record.

Kevin White, BL, prosecutor at the trial, said he had been “given permission” by the defending solicitor to run various portions of statements of evidence.

At the appeal, Michael Bowman, SC, for Mr Murray, said it was now a matter for the Court of Appeal to decide to what extent it was agreed that the evidence was to be led.

He said the evidence as led by the prosecution made it clear to the jury that Mr Murray, and not the vehicle that was stopped, was the target of a garda operation.

Two other grounds of appeal also came before the Court of Appeal, the first being that the trial judge erred in refusing to direct an acquittal on the grounds that the prosecution case could not demonstrate Mr Murray had knowledge of drugs in the load he was transporting.

A second ground was that the trial judge failed to charge the jury in accordance with Section 29 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1977.

The three judges in the Court of Appeal said those two grounds had not been pursued in any meaningful way, adding: “No doubt because they are without merit.”

In his written judgment, Mr Justice McCarthy said: “The jury were properly charged on the issue of possession, and we do not need to reprise the evidence to state our conclusion that there is sufficient circumstantial evidence to make out a prima facie case of possession, which has not been undermined in any way by the defence by raising a reasonable doubt...”

The sentencing hearing at Tullamore Circuit Court in December 2023 was told Mr Murray was charged after gardai had stopped him when he was driving a truck at Dunkerrin.

Detective Garda Val Russell said gardai mounted a surveillance operation on “all major routes” in Ireland after receiving information that Mr Murray had come into Northern Ireland from Cairnryan and intended driving home to Moneygall.

His vehicle was seen at the M7 plaza at Portlaoise and it then left the motorway at exit 21 and was followed by a garda vehicle.

Detective Garda Russell said the lorry engaged in counter surveillance manoeuvres, giving the example of where it had exited from the motorway, gone across a bridge, and was then driven again on the motorway in the original direction.

When it exited at Barack Obama Plaza it was followed by another garda detective and he pulled Mr Murray's vehicle over near his home.

Mr Murray co-operated with a search of the lorry, saying: “No problem, there's nothing on it”.

When nothing was visible the vehicle was seized and brought to Nenagh Garda Station where nothing was found in another search.

Gardai did find two Samsung mobile phones, one of which was encrypted, €1,570 worth of cash and paper receipts for fuel.

A warrant was obtained for a search of Mr Murray's property and land but nothing of evidential value was found and the truck was then brought to Dublin Port for another search.

Sniffer dogs and a scan uncovered nothing but a number of large steel tubes were found under other items.

Gardai searched the tubes by drilling holes and inserting a camera and found the drugs vacuum packed, along with €6,000, also vacuum packed in a tube.

Gardai also found Garmin sat nav devices and a tachograph and Detective Garda Russell said Claire Greaney from Forensic Science Ireland, who was described as a key witness in the trial, analysed the tachograph and found the truck had travelled from Moneygall to Rosslare, on to Fishguard, across the UK and eventually to Breda in the Netherlands where it appeared to remain from June 24 to June 28.

The court heard that Detective Garda Conor O'Sullivan extracted data from the sat nav and established that the truck had travelled to Hull, England from the Netherlands and gone up to Scotland to Cairnryan Port.

That detective also found that even though the sat nav was not activated between June 24 and June 28, it was still collecting data and recorded five movements of between 21 and 90 miles during those days in the Netherlands.

Detective Garda Russell said Mr Murray had a previous conviction for the sale and supply of drugs dating from 1999 when he received a seven-and-a-half-year sentence at Naas Circuit Court for that offence committed in October 1996.

He had also received a five-year suspended sentence for larceny in 1996 and his most recent offences were for road traffic matters in 2010 and 2009.

READ NEXT: Offaly company plays role in Munster county's GAA gate receipts topping €1 million

Asked about the accused's background, Detective Garda Russell said he knew he had a farm and a daughter of his had accompanied him to court at some stage.

Michael Gillespie, solicitor for Mr Murray, said his client had left school at 14 having completed one year of secondary because his father was ill and he had been principally a farmer since then.

He also got involved in haulage and he would go to the continent and on this occasion he picked up a load in Holland to bring to Ireland.

Mr Gillespie said the trial had heard evidence from James Quinn, a former president of the Irish Road Haulage Association, that a haulier would only be entitled to carry out a visual inspection of his load.

The defendant's brother, Seamus Murray, wrote a letter to the court saying that they had grown up with their sisters and when their parents were elderly Martin remained on the farm and they worked side by side on farms.

He referred to the accused as a good friend and brother who helped everyone locally and since Martin's conviction Seamus Murray had to run two farms.

Imposing a 10-year sentence, two years of which were suspended, Judge Johnson said the amount and kind of drug was an aggravating factor, stating that cannabis was anything but a “soft drug” and along with being a gateway to other drugs, 5% of cannabis users went on to develop schizophrenia.

The sentence was backdated to May 4, 2025 when Mr Murray first went into custody.

A letter from Cloverhill Prison said Martin Murray was a very good worker in the laundry there and was courteous and polite to staff.