Courts

Promising juvenile cricketer caught with almost €5,000 of cannabis given suspended sentence

Schoolboy international Harry Archer (23) of Skerries has 13 previous convictions for drug and road traffic offences

Archer hopes to play cricket for Ireland's reserve team in future. Photograph: Collins
Archer hopes to play cricket for Ireland's reserve team in future. Photograph: Collins
Sonya McLean
Tue Nov 26 2024 - 16:07

A promising international juvenile cricketer has been given a suspended sentence after he was caught with almost €5,000 of cannabis at his home two years ago.

Harry Archer (23) of Kellys Bay Rocks, Skerries, Co Dublin, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to possession of the drugs at his home on January 18th, 2022. He has 13 previous convictions for drug offences and road traffic offences.

Fergal Foley, prosecuting, told the court at a previous hearing last July, that Archer was caught with €4,886 worth of the drug following a search at his home. Archer told gardaí he had Covid-19 at the time of the search so he was not brought in for questioning. He arranged to come to the Garda station later.

Archer did not come to the station as promised and made no contact with the gardaí. He was later in custody in relation to a separate case and was taken in for questioning about the drug seizure.

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He made no admissions during interview but came forward to the Circuit Criminal Court on signed pleas of guilty from the District Court.

Judge Orla Crowe accepted that Archer is now drug-free, has not come to garda attention since and has a job offer. She acknowledged that he has “turned a corner”.

Judge Crowe said the case warranted a headline sentence of 18 months before she imposed a sentence of 12 months which she suspended in full. She ordered that Archer must engage with the Probation Service for two years.

The investigating garda agreed with Kelly Richardson, defending, that Archer’s family home has been targeted a number of times and reports have been made to the gardaí in relation to the attacks.

Ms Richardson said Archer had played cricket successfully at an underage level for many clubs and represented both Leinster and Ireland at that level.

She said in fourth year in school, in 2017, Archer travelled to South Africa as part of a contingent to play cricket and was there for nine weeks. He was later dropped from the Irish team and was subsequently not picked as an 18 year old for the under-19 Irish team.

Ms Richardson said Archer was hugely disappointed and fell into drug misuse. His addiction escalated and resulted in a heavy drug debt that also involved his family being issued with threats.

She said her client told her that getting caught with drugs “was the best that could have happened”. He has been dealing with his addiction and is hopeful of being included on the Irish reserve cricket team in the future, counsel said.