Woman found guilty in cannabis case

Press, 6 May 1983, Page 7

Woman found guilty in cannabis case

A young woman who her counsel said, had “been left holding the goods” was yesterday found guilty of possessing cannabis for sale or supply. The woman, Susan Elvia Agnes Bremer, aged 24, unemployed, had denied the charge. The trial was held before Judge Fraser and a jury in the District Court yesterday.

The defendant was convicted and remanded to appear for a probation officer’s report and sentence on May 19. Opening the case for the Crown, the prosecutor, Mr B. M. Stanaway, said that on February 21, the defendant and her boyfriend had gone to the White Heron Lodge with two friends. When the defendant’s boyfriend was detained at the Deep Freeze navy base by military personnel, the police travelled to the hotel and spoke with the defendant’s two companions. Later, when the three women were travelling down Memorial Avenue, their vehicle was stopped and the defendant was found to have 167 grams of cannabis, made up into six “deal bags,” in her possession.

Constable Peter Wayne Carrington said in evidence he and another constable had gone to the base on February 21 where the defendant’s boyfriend was being spoken to about a drug-related incident. Constable Carrington said

he then went to the hotel, where he spoke to the defendant’s two female companions, and searched the vehicle of one of them.

After receiving further information that there was cannabis in that vehicle, the constable stopped the vehicle, which was occupied by the defendant and her two associates, and searched it

He did not find any cannabis, but noticed that defendant was holding her carry-bag in an unnatural manner.

“She appeared to be very nervous and apprehensive.” He said that she hesitated when he asked to search the carry-bag. When the defendant gave him the carry-bag, he found inside it a brown leather bag containing several plastic “deal bags” of cannabis. He estimated that the contents of each bag would have been worth about $5OO. Also in the leather bag were a receipt bearing the name of one of the two women present, and a hirepurchase book in the name of the other woman. Under cross-examination from defence counsel, Mr S. C. Barker, Constable Carrington agreed there was nothing in the leather bag which indicated it belonged to the defendant. The defendant said that the bag was not hers, she did not know who owned it, and she did not know how it had got into her carry-bag. Robert Charles Husted, a petty officer of the United States Navy, who was based at the Deep Freeze base at the time of the alleged offence, said that on the evening of February 21 he saw the defendant sitting with three other persons at the White Heron Lodge. The defendant’s boyfriend, who was one of the four people in the party, held out “something the size of a

crumpled up napkin” towards one of the two other women in the group, Mr Husted said. Under cross-examination from Mr Barker, Mr Husted said that he had seen the defendant carrying a brown leather bag at the hotel. This was the same leather bag later found in the defendant’s carry-bag, he said.

He also said that later in the evening he had travelled with the police and the defendant back to the base after the defendant’s arrest. While he and the defendant were alone in the police vehicle, he saw her put her hand to her mouth and appear to chew something. When he questioned her, she denied having anything in her mouth, he said.

Putting the case for the defence, Mr Barker said that although the defendant had been found in possession of cannabis, she had not known she was carrying it. “She was left holding the goods,” he said. He also said that it was natural the defendant should appear nervous as she was in a strange city, with strange people, and faced with an unnerving situation. The defendant told the Court that she and her boyfriend had travelled to Christchurch the day before her arrest. She had met the two women only a few hours before they went to the hotel, and she had not known them prior to that, she said. She said she did not know who owned the leather bag, but thought it belonged to one of the women. She denied having carried it at the hotel. She agreed with Mr Barker that it was possible one of the women might have slipped the bag into her carry-bag, and said she was not aware it had been there until it was found by Constable Carrington.