RECALLED to court following the submissions of a probation report, Limerickman Daniel Corbett, aged 21, charged with the sale and supply of over €2,500 worth of cannabis herb, has been placed under the care and supervision of the Probation Services for a nine month period, in what Judge Tom O’Donnell described as a “very serious and disturbing matter”. The district court judge praised the bravery of Corbett’s family in dealing with the level of intimidation which they suffered.

Details had been heard at the hearing last November, and recalled at the recent sitting, of how a local family was terrorised out of their home and forced to repay a drug debt following threats and intimidation to a member from one of Limerick’s deadliest criminal gangs. Evidence had been given of the text message threats, midnight phone calls and an assault that Corbett’s family endured after he had ran up an unpaid drug debt.

Previously stunned to silence during the case when he was told of the background, Judge O’Donnell had heard detailed evidence relating to Corbett and how he developed a habit for using cannabis herb.

The evaluation report furnished by the Probation Services to the court noted how the accused “engaged well” with them and that “despite his difficulties in the past, was straightening out matters”.

Previously, the court was told that Corbett of McDonnagh Avenue, Janesboro, was unable to pay a drug debt and in fear for his safety, was forced into selling 20gm bags of cannabis herb for €300 for the criminal outfit.

He had appeared in court having been stopped by gardai on Mallow St on March 4, 2009, and when the vehicle was searched, €2,688 worth of the drug was found stashed in the air vent under the bonnet of the car.

It was at this time, the court heard, that the Corbett family found themselves at the mercy of the gang who demanded a €6,000 payment in lieu of the drugs seized.

Evidence had been given by the defence that it was indeed a “significant amount of drugs” to be found with and how a recreational habit resulted in Corbett getting caught with debts to a “serious criminal gang”.

Corbett was forced into distribution of the drugs for the gang in order to repay the debt. With it, this brought “intimidation and a serious amount of duress upon the family”.

The court had been told that in an attempt to quash the threat and abuse, a credit union loan had to be secured to make the payment.

Judge O’Donnell heard how the “lives of the family were made a misery,” and that €6,000 had to be paid to the gang or, “they would be minus a child”.

The Corbett family had to move home following the threats and intimidation.

The court previously heard that the family were still enduring to repay the loan, but that the intimidation was “not as bad now that the debt was paid”.

John Herbert, solicitor, told the recent sitting of the District Court that it was “clear the report drew some positive conclusions and that Mr Corbett was abstaining from drug use”.

Judge O’Donnell had already marked the facts of the case proven and in this instance, would “go along with the recommendations of the report”.

Noting the seriousness of the case, he said he did not think he had “heard anything more appalling in the courtroom for sometime”, and noted that the level of intimidation suffered by the family was “extremely disturbing” and amounted to an “appalling set of circumstances”, but credited the “bravery” of the family.

After reading the report, judge O’Donnell released Daniel Corbett on his own bond of €100, but due to the seriousness of the case, liberty was given for the prosecution or the probation services to re-enter the case pending the outcome of the nine month probationary period.