Cian Charlton, a sports science student in Dublin City University (DCU) has received a 12 month suspended sentence following a guilty plea to possessing over €3,000 worth of drugs for sale or supply.
The 21-year-old pleaded guilty to having cocaine, ketamine and MDMA amounting to a total street value of €3,079 while at Hampstead House in DCU on November 15 last year.
Having arrived at the Hampstead student residence in DCU last year, Garda Keith Morris told the court of how gardaí had witnessed Charlton running from his front door in onesie pyjamas. It was reported that Charlton then passed a laptop bag containing the drugs to a bystander before being apprehended and brought to Ballymun Garda Station for questioning.
Garda Morris also told the court that alongside the drugs gardaí found a weighing scales and a calendar listing names and corresponding amounts of money during the raid.
Charlton, a DJ and nightclub promoter, initially claimed that he sourced the drugs from the dark web for personal use but later admitted that this was false. It was accepted during Garda testimony that Charlton was in fear of the people who had supplied him with the drugs.
The Mayo native explained to Gardaí that his involvement in the nightclub scene meant he himself did drugs and that selling drugs was a convenient way of making money for a holiday he had planned.
Citing his rural background, James Dwyer SC, defending, described Charlton in court as something of a “neophyte” in Dublin and a “young man out of his element”.
DCU have suspended the student for the remainder of the academic year subject to further review. The court took this fact into consideration alongside his guilty plea, cooperation with gardaí and lack of previous convictions in handing down the sentence.
