{"id":561869,"date":"2026-07-22T03:53:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T03:53:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/561869\/"},"modified":"2026-07-22T03:53:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T03:53:15","slug":"attempted-murderer-caught-with-drugs-between-his-legs-in-mountjoy-cell-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/561869\/","title":{"rendered":"Attempted murderer caught with drugs between his legs in Mountjoy cell \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

An attempted murderer who is serving a 22-year sentence for trying to shoot the brother of Gerry Hutch<\/a> has been sentenced after he was caught with drugs between his legs in prison. <\/p>\n

Michael Carroll<\/a> (46) was jailed by the Special Criminal Court<\/a> in 2023 for opening fire on John Hutch in September 2016 and attempting to murder another man in early 2017. Hutch was not harmed in the attack. He died a number of years later in an unrelated incident in his home.<\/p>\n

Carroll, of Bride Street, Dublin 8<\/a>, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to two counts of possessing cannabis and heroin for supply in his cell in Mountjoy Prison on July 24th, 2023. The drugs were concealed between his legs when officers searched his cell, the court heard.<\/p>\n

He has 54 previous convictions including the two attempted murders, possessing a firearm with intent and further firearms, robbery and drug offences.<\/p>\n

A detective garda told Brian Storan, prosecuting, that Carroll was caught with 28g of cannabis and 22.5g of heroin between his legs during a routine search of his cell on the day in question. The drugs had a combined value of \u20ac3,720.<\/p>\n

Carroll was co-operative with prison officers and garda\u00ed, the court heard.<\/p>\n

Alan Delany, defending, said Carroll suffered a burst spleen when first imprisoned and developed addiction issues as a result. The drugs did not belong to him and he was holding them for other people due to a drug debt, the court heard.<\/p>\n

Carroll is an enhanced prisoner who has completed a number of violence prevention courses and now runs the course, defence counsel said. He has engaged in restorative justice and is involved in the prison school and gym. He plays the guitar and has an interest in writing and recording music.<\/p>\n

Sentencing Carroll, Judge Orla Crowe said it was a \u201cparticularly egregious circumstance, to be found in possession of drugs for sale or supply in prison\u201d. She noted he has a high number of previous convictions and his current release date is in 2038.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has done a considerable amount of courses in custody and is using his time to good avail,\u201d the judge said, noting Carroll has also completed his Leaving Certificate along with first aid and food preparation courses.<\/p>\n

She set a headline sentence of three years, which she reduced to two years taking mitigating factors into account.<\/p>\n

She backdated the sentence to May this year when Carroll entered the guilty pleas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An attempted murderer who is serving a 22-year sentence for trying to shoot the brother of Gerry Hutch…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":561870,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[63274,70422,61,60,43,31297],"class_list":["post-561869","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-dublin-8","tag-gerry-hutch","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-special-criminal-court"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561869","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=561869"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561869\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/561870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=561869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=561869"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=561869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}