Man on drug charge freed

Press, 8 December 1984, Page 6

Man on drug charge freed

A man whose fingerprints were found on pieces oi tinfoil wrapping of cannabis bullets, found by the police in a search of the Highway 61 club headquarters in Worcester Street on August 29, was discharged on a drug charge heard in the District Court yesterday. At the preliminary hearing of a charge against John Harry Akuhata, aged 26, a carpenter, of possessing cannabis plant for sale or supply, Messrs J. B. Graham and C. E. R. Wise, Justices of the Peace, accepted submissions by defence counsel that there was insufficient evidence to commit the defendant for trial. Mr D. C. Fitzgibbon, for the defendant, submitted at the end of prosecution evidence that a police fingerprint technician could not discount that somebody could have used the roll of tinfoil at the gang headquarters for an innocent purpose and that somebody else subsequently picked the roll up and used it for wrapping cannabis bullets. Detective Sergeant B. M. Roswell prosecuted. Police evidence was that 48 cannabis bullets were found in a locked cupboard in a room behind a bar at the headquarters. The quantity of cannabis plant in the bullets was 40.4 grams and fingerprints found on two of the 48 tinfoil wrappings were identified as those of the defendant. In cross-examination, a fingerprint technician, Constable J. Clark, said that he had also found partial fingerprints or palmprints on five pieces of tinfoil, and other small portions of prints not suitable for retention on other pieces of tinfoil. He said he had not made a conclusive finding about the palm print at present because of the limited time available to him, but it was most unlikely that it was the defendant’s. Asked whether he knew the cannabis bullets had come from a gang house where there were a number of people in residence or coming and going, the witness said a message he received with the tinfoil pieces to be fingerprinted was that they were found at the Highway 61 headquarters, and that there were no suspects but the names of members known to reside at or frequent the premises were ; supplied. Mr" Fitzgibbon said in submissions seeking a discharge that the evidence was that the fingerprints had been put on the tinfoil before it was crumpled. There was no other evidence associating the defendant with the cannabis bullets, and the evidence heard was insufficient to commit the defendant for trial. Detective Sergeant Roswell said the defendant’s fingerprints were found in a similar position on both pieces of tinfoil. Even if they had been handled by the defendant before they were used to wrap the cannabis, the evidence indicated a prima facie case that he was aware the pieces of tinfoil were to be used for wrapping cannabis.