Detective who played himself in "Love/Hate" forced to immigration job

Love/Hate detective forced into immigration job

The police detective who portrayed himself in the popular Irish TV drama "Love/Hate" has been forced to take a transfer to the gardaí's (Irish police) immigration department.

Garda Kieran O'Reilly, who played an undercover drugs officer in RTE's smash-hit "Love/Hate" – his actual position within the force prior to filming – must now take up a role within the Garda National Immigration Bureau (GNIB).

The decision was reportedly made by Garda management after concluding that the detective's position as an undercover drugs agent had been rendered untenable given the fact that his identity was now known to effectively the entire country, including the organized crime gang members O'Reilly had been tasked with catching.

Members of the force are also reportedly unhappy that the detective may have leaked some of the force's real-life surveillance methods to boost the program's realism, although this is fiercely denied both by O'Reilly and the show's producers, who say that the script had been finalized before the Garda joined the cast.

O'Reilly, a plain-clothes officer formerly affiliated with the Garda National Drugs Unit (GNDU), believed that as the force's internal rulebook did not have any explicit guidelines outlawing portraying members' jobs on TV programs or other fictional works that he would be allowed to continue in his job after filming had concluded.

However, Garda management has taken a decidedly frosty attitude towards O'Reilly's burgeoning acting career from the outset and issued the detective a formal verbal warning last November.

The 35-year-old was told that if he did not seek a transfer from the unit within two weeks that he would be forcibly transferred to another department.

The garda's seniors were reportedly aggrieved that the role depicted by O'Reilly in the program was too similar to his real-life job and that some of the techniques shown in the program had not come into the public domain before.

Garda Commissioner, Martin Callinan, ordered an internal inquiry into the detective's role, although legal advice taken by O'Reilly had indicated that the force would not be able to force him into another department as explicit regulations prohibiting the acting were not in place.

O'Reilly had then expressed fear that he would be suspended from the force, which he said would be traumatic for him and his young family.

Friends have said that the former detective is "devastated" by the forced transfer.

Chinese 'trafficking victim' found dining on crab and red wine

Chinese trafficking victim spotted
dining on red wine and crab

A Chinese national who claimed he was the destitute son of a peasant farmer, and a victim of human trafficking, was spotted dining on expensive red wine and crab -- while clutching a pricey iPhone at an opulent Dublin function.

The unusual revelation made by prosecuting counsel to the High Court last week was another unexpected twist to the as-of-yet unnamed man's strange odyssey in Ireland, according to the Irish Independent.

The 36 year old was appearing in court on drug related charges after police raided a Dublin property where cannabis was being grown in volumes sufficient for supply.

The man's unusual line of defense to the charges began when he then told authorities that he was forcibly locked in the raided property as a victim of human trafficking and was completely unaware that the plants he had been supposed forced to water were, in fact, drugs.

He claimed that 'snakeheads' -- Chinese gangs often operating human trafficking cells in Europe -- had smuggled him into the country to force him to tend towards the growing of the cannabis stash at the bust Henrietta Street grow-house.

The man claims he became involved with the criminal operation after his father had taken out a loan a year prior which he became unable to pay back in time.

After physical and death threats to his family ensued the man became tempted to earn and remit abroad - he claims most of his earnings have been sent back to China to provide for his family and help discharge the debt.

Initial transport was arranged by the gang from Hong Kong to Ireland where after a brief period working in Chinese restaurants around the country the man became involved in organized drugs crime.

His lawyers have claimed that the State is  failing to provide its basic legal safeguards towards the alleged trafficking victim by prosecuting him for an offence carried out under duress of the gang -- a provision they claim is guaranteed at European legislative level.

However, Kieran Kelly SC, prosecuting the case for the State, admitted photographic evidence of the accused enjoying gourmet meals at hotel functions in Galway and Dublin, suggesting that the man's liberty of movement may not have been as curtailed as he claimed.

The evidence was found on the accused's iPhone photo bank which was seized by police during the raid.

The case has been adjourned until Wednesday.