An appeal by convicted drug dealer Anthony Felloni against a 20-year sentence imposed for "wholesale" dealing in heroin was dismissed by the Court of Criminal Appeal yesterday.
Probation and psychiatric reports on Felloni (56), formerly with an address at Dominick Street, Dublin, revealed he has become completely institutionalised, is HIV positive and has obtained drugs in prison. He is unable to manage on his own for more than two days.
Mr Justice O'Flaherty, presiding at the Court of Criminal Appeal, said the picture regarding Felloni was of "unmitigated gloom without a chink of light".
He said Felloni had engaged in drug dealing on a grand scale and was back on the same offences.
The probation officer's report on Felloni gave no indication he intended to abstain from drug use in the future and admitted he was using drugs while in custody, the judge noted. The report added that given Felloni's long criminal record it would be difficult to be optimistic about him making the necessary changes to lead a law-abiding life.
The judge said another report on Felloni from a psychiatrist had referred to traits of institutionalisation.
Felloni had been released in 1993 after being sentenced to 10 years in 1986 for dealing and "here he is back on the same offences", Mr Justice O'Flaherty remarked.
Submissions on behalf of Felloni had not complained the sentences imposed were wrong in principle.
Mr Justice O'Flaherty dismissed the appeal but agreed to backdate the sentence for a number of months to January 1996.
Felloni had been sentenced to 20 years' imprisonment by the Circuit Criminal Court in June 1996 for four charges of possession of heroin with intent to supply between August 1994 and October 1995. Some of the offences were committed while Felloni was on bail.
Earlier, in submissions on behalf of Felloni, Mr Brendan Grogan SC said that when sentence was imposed in June 1996, the judge did not mention a number of matters of significance raised during the hearing including Felloni's advanced age and the fact he had pleaded guilty on arraignment.
Counsel said Felloni was addicted to heroin and this was not taken into account. His client would not be due for release until 2011 at 68 years of age.
Mr Grogan said Felloni had become institutionalised during his previous sentence for 10 years imposed in 1986. The 20-year sentence imposed was virtually a life sentence with no light at the end of the tunnel for Felloni, counsel said.
Mr Eamonn Leahy SC, also for Felloni, said the convicted man had accepted his were serious offences which warranted significant terms of imprisonment, but a total of 20 years for a man of his age was very severe indeed.
Urging the court to dismiss the appeal, Mr Tom O'Connell, for the DPP, said one of the charges of 1994 related to heroin with a street value of up to £150,000. He said the heroin was divided into 11 packs. Felloni was not street dealing but was wholesaling in heroin. Another charge related to £75,000 worth of heroin divided into a number of packs in January 1995 which, counsel said, also suggested a wholesale operation.
Before his conviction for drugs in 1986, Felloni had 26 previous convictions dating from 1959 which showed a pattern of a "serious, incorrigible criminal", Mr O'Connell added.