‘Responsible dad’ stored his drugs in wardrobe safe

 • 3h ago

Afather caught with cocaine and ecstasy in a safe in his wardrobe claimed he was being a “responsible parent” by storing the drugs there to keep them away from his young son.

Gary Hurley (39) said he and his housemates had chipped in to buy the drugs online in bulk as an “experiment” when they could not go out during Covid lockdown.

Judge Paula Murphy found him guilty of possession of drugs with intent to supply and gave him a nine-month suspended sentence.

Hurley, a stage technician and father-of-three of Cherrywood Drive, Clondalkin, had admitted simple possession but denied the supply charge.

Dublin District Court heard gardaí discovered the drugs while searching the house separately for evidence of forgery and fraud on June 15, 2020.

An electronic safe was open and contained a plastic lunchbox with two plastic bags of cocaine and 32 pink ecstasy tablets.

There were also drugs paraphernalia, including weighing scales, 141 small plastic bags and 31 small brown envelopes. 

Hurley said “it is what it is”, Garda Philip Byrne said.

Hurley told the court one of his housemates “figured out” that drugs could be ordered online, and it all arrived in a pack with the baggies.

The scales were “to see if what we ordered was right.”

They put the drugs in the safe because Hurley’s son was living there so “I wasn’t going to have a party or anything like that”.

Hurley’s lawyer said each housemate purchased and had access to their own portion and the accused was not supplying it.

“He was being a responsible parent not wanting to expose his child to that,” when he stored it in his safe, she said.

A state solicitor said it was “ludicrous” to suggest Hurley was acting responsibly and there was nothing to corroborate his version.

“I don’t see how in any way an open safe is a responsible approach,” Judge Murphy said.