Teacher fined

Press, 5 December 1979, Page 4

Teacher fined

A primary schoolteacher, convicted on a charge of cultivating cannabis in the loft of his Rangiora home, .was fined $4OO by Mr N. L. 'Bradford, S.M., when he appeared in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday. Larry Gordon Kemp, aged 29. who admitted growing 65 cannabis plants in the loft between October 19 and November 19 was told by the Magistrate that an application for final suppression of his name, made by counsel (Mr G. R. Lascelles) would be refused. The Magistrate said the defendant was in a special position of trust in relation to young children and that parents were entitled to know that he had broken the law under the Misuse of Drugs Act. In seeking suppression Mr Lascelles had submitted that the defendant, who otherwise had an excellent character and was regarded as a first class teacher, had two young children at the same school. Detective Sergeant B. M. Roswell said at 10 a.m. on November 19 members of the drug squad had searched the defendant’s address at Rangiora. Before starting the search Kemp was asked if there were any drugs in the house. Kemp then took them into the bedroom and showed them a manhole into the loft where a large number of jannabis plants were found growing in 65 milk-shake containers. Fifty of the containers had!

cannabis plants growing in them. The loft was lined with silver paper and contained four sets of fluorescent lights operated from the bedroom, said Sergeant Roswell. Kemp admitted having planted the cannabis four weeks earlier and said he had watered the plants once a day since. The cannabis, which weighed 1.5 grams, was for the defendant’s own use, Detective Sergeant Roswell. Mr Lascelles said his client had been a teacher at the local primary school for two years and that since being arrested he had lost $6OO in pay while he had been off work. There was no suggestion that the cannabis was for anyone but his client, he said. DRUG OFFENCE A self-employed art director, who pleaded guilty to a charge of cultivating cannabis, was convicted and fined $3OO. Roger Paul Griffiths, aged 28, admitted the offence which occurred on November 25. Detective Sergeant Roswell said, acting on information received, a search warrant was executed at the i defendant’s address where! nine cannabis plants had 1 been found growing behind a shed. Griffiths had admitted cultivating the plants, which, he had told the police, were for his own use. CHARGES DENIED Six charges alleging assault, wilful damage, resisting, and using obscene language. were denied by Grant Arthur McDonagh. McDonagh, unemployed, aged 27, is alleged to have used obscene language in Cathedral Square, resisted a woman constable in the execution of her duty, assaulted two female constables, and to have wilfully damaged two shirts, the property of the Police Department. The alleged offences were | said to have occurred on! November 19. McDonagh was allowed bail of $4OO. He was remanded to February 4 for a iefended hearing.