Former youth worker jailed after £28k drugs haul

A FORMER youth worker was jailed for six months yesterday after he was caught with up to £28k worth of drugs.

Terence Martin Lunney (34), from Roden Street, Belfast, pleaded guilty at Belfast Crown Court to possession of class A drugs with intent to supply and possession of cocaine and cannabis.

Prosecution lawyer Mark Farrell told the court that on October 7, 2016 police searched a house on the Whitewell Road in north Belfast. During the search police recovered cocaine and cannabis in a cupboard under the sink which had a street value of between £19,000-£28,000. Drug-related paraphernalia was also seized.

Mr Farrell said Lunney had 37 previous convictions but none for drug offences and prior to the search “had not been on the police’s drugs radar”. He added that an aggravating factor was that the defendant was on licence at the time of the drugs seizure.

Defence barrister Luke Curran said Lunney relapsed into his drug addiction following the death of his father in 2015. Since being charged with the drug offences, Lunney had been working with the Probation Service about his drug addiction and was making “significant progress”.

Judge Paul Ramsey QC said he was taking Lunney’s guilty plea into account along with his work with the Probation Service and sentenced him to six months in custody followed by 12 months on supervised licence on his release.