A court was told plants were growing in several rooms of a property at Royal Hillsborough including a 13-year-old boy’s bedroom.
Jevgenijus Surkus (62) and Kirstina Surke (47), both of Ballyworfy Road at Royal Hillsborough, are charged with cultivating cannabis on July 21 this year.
They are also charged with child neglect. The particulars of the charge are that they ‘wilfully exposed him to cannabis, in a manner likely to cause unnecessary suffering or injury to health’.
Both defendants, originally from Lithuania, appeared at Craigavon Magistrates’ Court via video link from prison.
A police officer opposed bail.
On Monday, July 21 he said police were making enquiries about an incident in Belfast where a property had been left with “substantial damage and signs of drug cultivation”.
Photos were obtained of a tenant and one of the males who had been at the Belfast property.
A letter for a hospital appointment arrived at the Belfast address and the officer said follow-up enquiries provided the Hillsborough address. There had also been post at the Belfast address for Surke.
When police called at Ballyworfy Road at Hillsborough the door was answered by the male in the photo from Belfast – the defendant Surkus.
At the Hillsborough address, police detected a strong smell of cannabis. Surkus tried to run off but he was stopped. Surke was in the property.
Police then discovered a large amount of cannabis in the Hillsborough house including in the boy’s bedroom where he had been sleeping.
The officer said there were 161 cannabis plants at a number of locations at the property including in the child’s bedroom, living room, sitting room, dining room, a sun room, a workshop and a garage.
There were heat lamps, fans, plastic sheeting and “large tubing”.
Defence lawyers said the defendants had no records.
District Judge Michael Ranaghan said it was a “sophisticated, large, cannabis factory”.
He gave each of them bail in the sum of £500 to an address to be approved by police and a cash surety totalling £3,000 for both defendants was lodged. They have to surrender passports and travel documents.
They are also barred from Ballyworfy Road and Castlehill Road in Belfast. They have to sign three times a week at a police station.
The cases were adjourned to August 29.
