A FORMER prison officer who smuggled three mobile phones into a jail has been given a fine and community service at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.
Christopher Nolan complied with demands for a mobile phone because he feared for his own safety. This was after the prisoner was able to tell him his home address and car registration.
Nolan (41) , Pace Avenue, Littlepace, Clonee, Co Meath, a married man with no children, pleaded guilty to three counts of conveying a mobile phone to a prisoner between August 1st and October 31st, 2006.
Paul Fitzgerald was serving a 10-year sentence for drug possession at the time and has since been repatriated to Britain.
Judge Patricia Ryan imposed a fine of €5,000 and 240 hours community service, to be completed within one year. She imposed a two-year sentence on each count but suspended it for two years.
Dominic McGinn, prosecuting, earlier told Judge Ryan that the maximum penalty for this offence was five years imprisonment but that the court had inherent jurisdiction with regard to financial penalties and community service orders.
Det Sgt Cormac Brennan told Mr McGinn that Nolan was targeted following the receipt of confidential information during a larger investigation into the traffic of contraband into prisons.
He said Nolan had joined the Prison Service in 2002 and was assigned to Wheatfield Prison.
During his time there he was a “class officer”, responsible for a segregated unit of the institution housing prisoners such as sex offenders and those on protection.
Det Garda Brennan said Nolan was arrested in March 2007 and made admissions during interview.
Nolan told gardaí that he had felt threatened by Fitzgerald who told him he knew details of his home address and car registration. He said he felt he had “no back-up in there” and did not know how to deal with the situation. Nolan said that he had been trained to deal with physical threats but not with this kind of threat.
Det Garda Brennan said Nolan supplied Fitzgerald with three mobile phones beginning in August 2006, but when the prisoner stepped up his requests and asked for drugs Nolan refused. Nolan said it was “a breath of fresh air” when Fitzgerald was deported in November 2006.
Nolan told gardaí that he had been “deeply unnerved” by an incident where he believed he was being tailed by men in a car who followed him to his house despite his taking a circuitous route.
Det Garda Brennan said Nolan resigned a few days after he was arrested and now works as a barber. He said Nolan had no previous convictions and has not come to any further Garda attention.
Det Garda Brennan agreed with Patrick Reynolds, defending, that there was no evidence that Nolan had gained financially from the offence and that he had in fact bought one of the phones with his own money and given Fitzgerald a further two phones he owned personally.
Mr Reynolds said Nolan had committed the offences out of fear and had co-operated fully with gardaí.