William O’Shea receives three-year jail term in cocaine case

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

William O’Shea and Mark Hayden each received a three-year prison sentence from Judge Martin Nolan at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court for possessing cocaine for sale or supply. Both men pleaded guilty. The offence took place on 6 April 2014. The proceedings were reported on 28 April 2015.

William O’Shea had agreed to take almost 1kg of cocaine to Cork. Mark Hayden had kept the drugs for two days, according to the report.

Detective Garda Val Russell told prosecutor Cathleen Noctor that a tip-off had prompted gardaí to watch the Skylon Hotel in Dublin. Officers saw William O’Shea emerge from the hotel and enter a car in which Mark Hayden had arrived.

The report described William O’Shea returning to the hotel after getting out of the car with a bag he had not been carrying before. Searches of the two men and the car followed. Cocaine valued at €68,740 was recovered from the bag he was carrying. The car search found nothing.

William O’Shea had no criminal record; Mark Hayden’s record consisted of one public order conviction. Judge Martin Nolan took account of their employment records, attitude to work, admissions and co-operation with gardaí. He viewed the quantity of cocaine as reasonably large and their involvement as a lapse in judgment, undertaken for their own reasons.