Man ’had heroin for supply’

Press, 21 December 1979, Page 5

Man ’had heroin for supply’

PA Wellington Parliament had laid down that scant regard was to be paid to personal circumstances in hard drug offending. They were minimal compared with the scourge to the community, said Mr Justice O’Regan in the Supreme Court at Wellington. He was sentencing Robert Christopher Bray, aged 22, a workman, to three years jail for possession of heroin for the purpose of supply and for unlawful possession of a syringe. Bray was found to be in possession of 10 sachets of a mixture of glucose and heroin, but the total content of heroin (0.631 grams) was very small, his Honour said. Parliament had decreed that where an accused

person had more than half a gram of heroin the onus was on him to disprove the presumption that it was for supply. The jury had been clearly aware that Bray was addicted to heroin but he had not discharged the onus of proof that it was for his own use. Bray had had a reputation for industry and reliability, but last year had taken a new turn and associated with people who were using heroin, and he inevitably became addicted, his Honour said. Brat's previous offending of burglary and receiving were all drug-re-lated. They were to get money to buy drugs as he was under a compulsion and needed a continuity of supply for his own use.