Co Down cocaine courier caught with drug-filled Kinder egg in jail gets three more months

Appearing at Lisburn Magistrates’ Court via video-link from prison, Jackie Paul Kirkwood (45) entered guilty pleas to having class B cannabis and class C prescription drugs clonazolam and buprenorphine on April 3 last year. The drugs were concealed in a Kinder egg.

At the time, Kirkwood, from Everogue Lane in Crossgar, was on remand after he was “caught red-handed'' with £190,000 worth of cocaine, with a prosecuting lawyer noting he had been granted compassionate bail on March 31 to scatter his son’s ashes.

When he returned to prison, it was suspected that he was concealing drugs and he was placed into a dry cell. It was heard that on April 3 “staff saw him acting suspiciously at the toilet”.

“CCTV footage showed him excreting what appeared to be a Kinder egg,” said the prosecuting lawyer.

When the yellow, plastic cylindrical container was examined, officers retrieved 58 tablets and a small quantity of cannabis.

Kirkwood claimed that rather than smuggling it into prison, the container had fallen out of a gallon drum of shower gel which he had taken back to his cell.

His plea to possession, rather than smuggling, was accepted on the basis that prison staff shortages meant the shower area may not have been properly searched.

District Judge Austin Kennedy ordered the three-month jail sentence to be served concurrently to Kirkwood’s ongoing sentence.

Earlier this month, he was handed sentences totalling four years for drug dealing and driving while banned.

In that case, Belfast Crown Court heard police stopped Kirkwood driving a Yamaha moped on the Beersbridge Road in east Belfast on November 10, 2021. They found almost two kilograms of cocaine in the storage compartment under the seat.

Searches of his home uncovered a number of cutting agents and drugs paraphernalia including benzocaine, weighing scales and dealer bag”.

While prosecuting counsel Natalie Pinkerton conceded “we can't gainsay that this defendant was any more than a courier… couriers play a vital role in crimes of this nature and crimes of this nature can't be completed without couriers”.

It was also revealed that Kirkwood had 214 previous convictions, including 95 for road traffic offences.