Christiane Moringa Fortis has cocaine sentence cut on appeal

This report is a localnews.ie summary based on public court reporting and records; sources are listed below.

Christiane Moringa Fortis had her four-year sentence for importing cocaine reduced by the Court of Appeal on 22 October 2015, with the final 18 months suspended. She had pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to importing cocaine worth €64,000 through Dublin Airport on 14 May 2014.

The three-judge appeal court found that the original sentencing judge had not clearly assessed the seriousness of the offence or weighed Fortis’s mitigation, including her guilty plea and lack of previous convictions. The court imposed a new four-year sentence, leaving 30 months to be served in custody.

The court was told that Fortis had concealed cocaine pellets in her body, bra, underwear and sanitary towels. She said she had been carrying the drugs to raise money for legal fees connected with regaining custody of her child in Brazil.