Grandmother loses appeal against drugs sentence
A grandmother has lost her appeal against the severity of the 10-year sentence she received for having cannabis and cocaine for sale and supply.
The three-judge Court of Criminal Appeal said today that it could find no error with the sentence Maria Norris (aged 44), of Elm Park, Clonmel, who was found to have €300,000 worth of drugs in the bedroom of her home in the Co Tipperary Town in June 2005.
Last year Norris was jailed by Judge Alice Doyle after being found guilty by a jury at Clonmel Circuit Criminal Court of five drugs offences, including having cocaine and cannabis with intent to supply.
Norris denied the charges, and appealed against both the conviction and the severity of the sentence. Her appeal against conviction had previously been rejected by the CCA.
Lawyers for Norris claimed that the sentence was excessive and that the judge had not properly taken all the mitigating factors into account, and that she was being penalised for pleading not guilty.
Norris, had no previous convictions, the court heard, and had co-operated with the Gardaí after the drugs were discovered. Somebody else, the court heard, had taken responsibility for the drugs.
The court was also informed that one of Norris' two children died several years ago from a drugs overdose when he was 19 years old.
The DPP had opposed the appeal.
