Trial on cannabis charges

Press, 20 July 1979, Page 18

Trial on cannabis charges

Michael O'Connell, aged 24. unemployed, pleaded not guilty and elected trial by jury .when he appeared in the' .Magistrate’s Court (yesterday on charges of cul-l irivaling a prohibited plant.! (cannabis, on March 6 last) jyear. and having possession! of cannabis for supply on( ■ March 8 last year. ' The alleged offences inivolved 75 cannabis plants, of !a total weight of 2.9 kilo-) (grams, found growing in two; rooms of a house, which was said to have been rented by the defendant. Mr M. G. Smith and Miss J. Taylor, Justices of the Peace, after hearing the depositions of two police witnesses, found there was a prima facie case to answer and remanded the defendant to the Supreme Court for trial. The defendant was represented by Mr K. N. Hampton, who called no evi-l jdeuce and reserved his! (defence to the charges. I Sergeant N. T. Higgison,! I who prosecuted, said in his! I outline of the ( charges that i police receive'd information [of the possible cultivation of (cannabis in a house in Ngarimu Street in March last year and kept watch for two i days. The defendant, was) then seen in the driveway beside his station waggon and told a police officer he was picking up some fish tanks from the garage. The house was found to be empty but with two locked bedrooms. The 75; plants, ranging up to Im I high, were found in these! rooms. Evidence from a constable and a detective constable was heard. Later in the day the defendant appeared before Mr N. L. Bradford. S.M., for sentence on two charges of possession of a class C-controlled drug, cannabis leaf, on June 7 this year and March 6, 1978, and one charge of having possession of a class A drug, D.M.A. (Bromo-dimethoxy-ampheta-mine) for supply, on June 7 this year. He had been convicted of these offences last week and was yesterday remanded in custody until today for sentence.