Because of her lover, she was ruining her life.
Now she will have to live in prison, not free.
A Kinahan cartel gunman, who is serving time for a plot to murder Patsy Hutch, pressured
his girlfriend into storing almost €50k of drugs while he was behind bars, just months
after she was caught trying to smuggle drugs to him in prison.
Clare O'Connor, of the Horizon Building, Ashtown, Dublin 15, was given a four-year suspended
sentence after she pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to having various drugs
at her home, with a total street value of €47,407, on November 17, 2019.
CrimeTime can reveal that O'Connor was going out with former British solider turned Kinahan
cartel member Robert Browne, who is serving a 11-and-a-half year sentence for a plot to
kill Patsy Hutch in 2018.
O'Connor was previously convicted for trying to smuggle heroin and cannabis into Browne
in Mountjoy Prison on February 6, 2019.
She was given a three-month suspended sentence for that offence.
Browne, who is originally from Hardwicke Street flats but has an address at Phibsborough Road,
Dublin, was part of a three-man hit team who were arrested with four firearms at Belmont
Hall Apartments, Gardiner Street in Dublin on March 10, 2018.
He has involvement with the cartel dating back 20 years and had links to senior Kinahan
associates, including Ross Browning.
Browne, along with Finglas brothers Gary and Glen Thompson, were just 250 metres from Patsy
Hutch's house when heavily-armed gardaí swooped in and foiled their assassination plot.
Browne and the Thompsons were being secretly recorded in the run-up to the plot and in
one recording they discussed how the "cartel has money all over the world" before Browne
told Gary Thompson: "I'll get you €15,000 out of this".
In another recording, Glen Thompson said: "These are the gloves we're using.
I'll give you the Makarov.
Let me use the Mac thing because I'll be getting out as well."
Browne replied: "I'll use the small one, you use the 38 - I just want something, just in
case."
Browne added: "What I want is to get in the van with no one seeing us.
It's real quiet there, especially with them guards."
He also discussed how there could be people in the area paid to watch Patsy's back.
Browne later pleaded guilty to a number of offences related to the murder plot and was
sentenced to 11-and-a-half years in 2019.
However, he continued his involvement in crime while behind bars.
Even though O'Connor was caught trying to bring contraband into Browne in Mountjoy in
February 2019, she was still storing drugs at her apartment nine months later under his
direction Garda Brian O'Toole agreed with Anne Marie
Lawlor SC, defending, that at the time of her arrest O'Connor was in a relationship
with a violent offender who had been jailed for conspiracy to commit murder.
While the violent offender was not named in court, the Sunday World has established it
was Browne.
Gda O'Toole accepted that this man had "enormous control" over O'Connor and that she was in
great fear of him.
Gda O'Toole further accepted a suggestion from Ms Lawlor that O'Connor was "prevailed
upon by him" to bring the drugs into Mountjoy Prison.
He agreed that O'Connor, who has no involvement with the Kinahan cartel, felt herself that
she had no option but to make her home available to this man to have drugs stored there.
Gda O'Toole acknowledged that O'Connor "no longer has any dealings with this man" and
agreed that he does not expect to see O'Connor before the courts again.
Gda O'Toole told Pieter Le Vert BL, prosecuting, that gardaí secured a warrant for O'Connor's
home on foot of a tip-off.
She was there with her three children at the time and "co-operated with the gardaí through
the whole process".
The apartment was searched and various drugs were found in different locations, including
in a sock, in the water tank, in the hot press and in a school bag in a locked shed on the
balcony.
O'Connor later admitted that she had agreed to mind the drugs in the apartment for a day.
Gda O'Toole confirmed that 300g of heroin was discovered with a street value €42,784,
various tablets worth €2,880, cannabis worth €360, cannabis resin worth €291 and 62
MDMA tablets worth €620.
Ms Lawlor told the court that her client has two children of her own but has also been
the carer for her children's 10-year-old cousin since that child was a newborn.
She said that this child has "very profound special needs" and is heavily reliant on O'Connor,
adding that if her client went to prison it would be to the "huge detriment" of this little
girl.
Judge Martin Nolan acknowledged that O Connor fully co-operated with the gardaí and accepted
that she was holding the drugs for third parties.
He accepted evidence that she was "a very good carer to this child and the child depends
on the affection and love of this defendant" before he suspended a four-year term of imprisonment.
Since being locked up Browne has had another three months added to his sentence after being
caught with a mobile phone.
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