Man abandoned as a child to 'live with the fairies' on a West Cork mountain is jailed for cannabis dealing

A YOUNG man who was abandoned to “live with the fairies” and take magic mushrooms when he was only a child in the Coolmountain area of West Cork was jailed for five and half years for having cannabis for sale on three separate occasions.

Detective Garda Andrew Manning said that in the biggest of the three seizures, over €170,000 worth of cannabis was seized at the house in Dunmanway.

The defendant, Manu Gohl, fled to Portugal but was arrested on a European warrant and brought back to face the charges against him.

Judge Seán Ó Donnabháin imposed a jail term of seven years, with the last 18 months suspended, on Manu Gohl, aged 32.

The judge said, “I have never seen an upbringing as dysfunctional. He is left out there with the fairies and with an addiction.

“This is a disturbing case, that this man grew up in our community – whatever that is – Ireland – and was given such an abandonment from an early age.

"He appears to have been brought to live in Coolmountain in some sort of commune.

"When he was ten he saw someone burnt to death in a caravan. His mother and step-father’s influence from the age of ten was detrimental.

"He appears to have been on his own from 13, working in casual jobs in a community where drug addiction was not unknown. He started on magic mushrooms and drugs became endemic.

“He came up with the plan (to sell all the drugs and make €60,000) and go to Portugal where the sun would shine and he would never have a problem again.”

Ms Fawsitt said Gohl, age 32, was addicted to cannabis for a long time but had struck many people in the community as being very pleasant and generous in his encounters with them.

He pleaded guilty to having more than €13,000 worth of cannabis for sale or supply at Derragh, Dunmanway, County Cork, on January 18, 2016.

The €13,000 allows for a possible minimum jail term of ten years unless there are exceptional circumstances.

Detective Garda Andrew Manning said the accused had been in a relationship with a young woman who got a suspended sentence recently for her part in the drugs crimes.

Two elaborate grow-houses with lighting and watering systems were found at the house containing drugs to a total value of €170,000, between mature plants in one grow-house and harvested cannabis being dried out from the second unit.

He was caught with drugs for sale twice before this drugs raid – in July 2015 and on an earlier date in January 2016. The main offence with the €170,000 worth of drugs related to the third occasion – January 18, 2016.