Former teaching assistant jailed for allowing himself to be used as a drugs mule

By Natasha Reid

A former teaching assistant has been jailed for four years for allowing himself to be used as a ‘drugs mule’ to bring €251,000 worth of cannabis into the country.

The English man was caught with the drugs in his suitcase on arrival to Dublin Airport from Los Angeles. He had been offered £10,000 to carry them.

Wayne Fairhurst (33), who is from Warrington in the UK, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to possession of the drugs for sale or supply on February 22 this year.

Garda Tanya Shinkins told the court on Wednesday that Fairhurst was making his way through the customs channel in Terminal 2, when he was apprehended by a customs officer who observed anomalies in his suitcase.

The case was found to contain 28 plastic packages, containing 12.5kg of cannabis, with a value of €251,000.

Fairhurst was arrested and told gardai that he had been approached to make some money. He declined an offer of £7,000, but was then offered £10,000, which he accepted.

He said he was told to book the trip himself, and that it had cost him £1,400, which was everything he had.

When in LA he said he got a phone call to meet someone and to hand over his suitcase. He said that he thought it would be ‘a little bit of weed’ and was surprised by the weight of the case when he received it back later.

He said that he told the person that he could not take it all, but that he felt threatened and took it. He was then directed to certain accommodation in Dublin.

The accused man’s barrister asked Garda Shinkins if his client had been polite in interview.

“Absolutely,” she replied.

She agreed that he could be described as a ‘drugs mule’ and was expendable.

The defence handed in a forensic psychologist’s report, which said Fairhurst had a background of poverty, had moved house 18 times as a child, and had grown up exposed to domestic abuse. His mother had him young and suffered subsequent mental health difficulties. His father had a serious alcohol problem, which had cost him his life.

The defendant had also been diagnosed with ADHD and dyslexia as a child. All of this had a severe effect on him and had led to his abuse of cannabis, alcohol and cocaine.

Around the time of the offence, Fairhurst’s relationship with his partner ended and he had lost his job. It was the defence case that this had all led to his decision to become involved in this offence.

The court also heard that, while working as a school janitor, he was identified as someone who had an excellent rapport with children, and that he was given a job as a teaching assistant.

His barrister said that he had excelled in that role, but it became a stressor to him, reminding him of his own childhood difficulties.

The report described him as a psychologically vulnerable man, who suffered from particularly low self-esteem and self-worth.

Judge Sinéad Ní Chúlacháin said that drugs are a scourge on our society.

She said that, although cannabis was not the most seriously addictive of drugs, organised crime would be involved in that quantity.

“They would not be able to function without people like you under the radar,” she said.

She sentenced him to five years in prison, and suspended the final year after taking account of the fact that he would be serving his sentence in another jurisdiction.