Man was caught with drugs after falling asleep on the Belfast to Derry bus

Tiernan Hugh Gallen (27) from Canal Side in Town Parks, Strabane, who was described in court as a street dealer, pleaded guilty to being concerned in supplying the Class A drugs. He further admitted being concerned in supplying the Class C drugs.

He committed the offences between September 2018 and January 2019.

He also pleaded to possessing a knife which was found on him when he was arrested on New Year's Day, 2019, at the Foyle Street bus depot in Derry.

Defence barrister Ciaran Roddy told Judge Roseanne McCormick KC that in considering her sentence she should take into consideration what he called the egregious delay by the Public Prosecution Service in finalising the case over seven years after Gallen was arrested and four years after he'd pleaded guilty.

The court was told that on New Year's Day in January 2019 Gallen was found asleep on a bus which had just arrived in Derry from Belfast. Depot staff members were unable to waken him and they called the police.

The court heard the police removed him from the bus and noticed that his eyes were glazed and that he was drooling from the mouth.

They searched him and found on him two bags of class C drugs, deal bags a five inch bladed knife and a mobile 'phone.

Gallen told the police he'd travelled with a friend on the bus from Belfast but CCTV footage from both the Belfast and Derry bus depots showed he'd travelled alone. When his mobile phone was triaged it was found to contain multiple messages relating to supplying drugs.

Judge McCormick said Gallen had a record of 80 previous convictions, 30 of them for drugs offences and that he'd been jailed twelve times for a variety of offences, including drugs. She said it was obvious he was dealing in order to fund his own addiction.

Gallen was ordered to complete one hundred hours of voluntary community service and placed on probation supervision for three years.