Lambton fined on drug charge

Press, Volume CXIII, Issue 33252, 15 June 1973, Page 9

Lambton fined on drug charge

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) LONDON, June 14. The former British Government Minister, Lord Lambton, was smoking cannabis in a picture which showed him lying on a call-girl’s bed, the prosecution alleged in the Marylebone Magistrate’s Court yesterday.

Lambton was quoted by the police as .having said: “This all arises out of my fetish for talking about drugs when Igo to bed—-it is a (game we play.”

The Court convicted him and fined him £3OO for possessing two small portions of cannabis and some “pep” pills found by the police in his London flat. I Lambton admitted possession of the drugs, but denied The prosecution’s assertion 'that he had taken cannabis | at the flat of an Irish-born j call-girl, Norma Levy. It was pictures of Lambton in Mrs (Levy’s home that gave rise to the scandal that forced him to resign from Cabinet office last month. Defence counsel (Mr Edward Cazalet, Q.C.) accused the prosecution of introducing irrelevant evidence by producing the Levy flat pictures. As far as Lambton was concerned, he did not take cannabis, or any other drug, in or out of Mrs Levy’s flat, Mr Cazalet said. Lambton accepted full responsibility for these drugs found in his home, but they were neither for his use nor for his consumption, Mr Cazalet said, adding: “He had confiscated them from another person, and so far as that other person is concerned, he does not wish to disclose the identity.” The amounts involved were only minute. The drugs had been in the house for a considerable period of time after he had confiscated them, but Lambton had omitted to dispose of them. He accepts that he was a fool not to dispose of these small quantities of cannabis, but the fact of the matter is he omitted to do so. “The interview with police officers was made by appointment, and my client had one hour and a half before the interview in which to have destroyed the drugs had he wished. But he did not. He had no guilty mind, and that is surely an indication of the man.” Asking for no special favours on behalf of his client, Mr Cazalet said: "You will appreciate the agony of

mind he has gone through during the last few weeks. He has devoted a considerable part of his life to public service, and the position he faces now, so far as his public and private life are concerned is that he is subject to total humiliation.” The Magistrate (Mr Rupert Rawden-Smith) asked whether Lambton would like to give evidence, but Mr Cazalet declined, and said that he had been instructed “to lieave matters as they are.” | After Lambton had been 1 fined, Mr Cazalet asked for (the formal seven days in which to pay the £3OO fine.