Rachel Allen’s son walks free after serving just four months

The son of celebrity chef Rachel Allen has been released from prison having spent four-and-a-half months behind bars for dealing drugs.

Joshua Allen, 19, was jailed for 15 months on February 28 after being found with more than €22,000 worth of cannabis for sale at the renowned Ballymaloe Cookery School, Cork.

He was granted temporary release from Cork Prison on June 2, having spent three months in rehab and three weeks on remand.

The eldest son of the celebrity chef had pleaded guilty to possession of cannabis. The drugs shipment had been sent in the post to Ballymaloe Cookery School. He also admitted possessing a small quantity of cocaine and cannabis for his own use.

Allen, of Ballinmona, Shanagarry, Co. Cork, spent three weeks in custody last year after Judge Seán Ó Donnabháin said that his response to facing serious drug charges was ‘unimpressive’. Last November, he was given the opportunity to become an in-patient at Cuan Mhuire rehab centre, where he was successfully treated for his addiction.

Following the rehab stint at Cuan Mhuire in Athy, Co. Kildare, Allen was handed down a 15-month jail term at Cork Circuit Court. The judge backdated his sentenced to early November – meaning his three months in rehab for cannabis addiction counted as part of his sentence, as did his three weeks on remand.

He was granted temporary release from prison just 13 weeks later and became a free man last Tuesday week.

It is understood his official prison release date was mid-October – meaning he got out four-and-a-half months early.

Like all prisoners, Allen was automatically entitled to 25% remission of his sentence. This means the teen’s 15-month jail term should have translated into just over 11 months behind bars. In reality he served just over four months, as the courts recognised his three-month rehab stint as time served. In addition, the prison authorities deemed him eligible for temporary release on June 2. The Irish Prison Service declined to respond when contacted by the Irish Daily Mail about the 19-year-old’s temporary release. It is understood that Allen has been granted temporary release on a number of conditions, including signing on weekly at Cork Prison and observing a curfew.

The Prison Service says there are numerous factors taken into account before any inmate is granted temporary release. These include the nature and gravity of the offence, period of sentence served and potential threat to public safety.

At Allen’s sentencing hearing on February 28, details of the drugs enterprise he was involved in were disclosed. Det Sgt Michael O’Halloran told Cork Circuit Criminal Court that customs officers had intercepted a package containing 1.134 kilos of cannabis at the Portlaoise Sorting Office on August 27, 2018. The drugs, which had a street value of €22,694, were addressed to Joshua Allen at Ballymaloe Cookery School, and gardaí organised a controlled delivery of the package to Allen on August 30, 2018 at Ballymaloe Cookery School.

Allen signed for and accepted the package outside the shop at the cookery school, and gardaí watched him open the package before arresting him.

Det Sgt O’Halloran said Allen told gardaí it was the third or fourth such delivery that he had organised, obtaining the drugs from a woman in California.

Siobhán Lankford SC submitted a probation report and a report from the Cuan Mhuire drug treatment centre, and pleaded for leniency.

She said her client had since shown a different attitude towards drugs.

Judge Ó Donnabháin said, however, he disagreed with a defence suggestion that there was a certain amateurishness to Allen’s offending, pointing out he had gone to London with €2,000 to organise the drug deal from the United States.

He also noted that the probation report found he was at a moderate risk of re-offending.

MORE NEWS:

Download the Microsoft News App for full coverage of the crisis