Police found homebake laboratory in flat

Press, 21 November 1986, Page 4

Police found homebake laboratory in flat

An elaborate, fully equipped homebake laboratory for manufacturing morphine had been going full blast and a woman was about to inject herself with a hypodermic syringe when drug squad police burst into a flat in Southampton Street, Sydenham, Mr Justice Williamson was told in the High Court yesterday.

His Honour jailed Kaye Elizabeth Satherley, aged 28, for a year on a charge of manufacturing morphine. She had pleaded guilty in the District Court.

Less imported heroin had led to several homebake laboratories being set up the police statement said. The basic material was painkillers purchased from chemists.

Codeine was extracted from pills and was converted to morphine, which could then be refined to heroin by a relatively simple process.

Police with a search warrant went to a flat in Southampton Street on October 21. Satherley and her manfriend, Christopher Robin Horgan, were in the kitchen.

Satherley was holding a syringe and needle. Horgan had a knife and there was another syringe on

the stove. In the kitchen and bathroom were 72 items, making up a complete homebake morphine laboratory, and other drug-re-lated paraphernalia. There was 76 milligrams of manufactured morphine on a cutting board in the kitchen. Satherley admitted having just completed a "bake” of morphine by using about 250 pain-kill-ing tablets. The drug was for her and her manfriend. Satherley admitted that there had been occasions when others had brought her analgestic tablets and she had made morphine from them for those who had supplied the pills. When the police arrived she had been about to inject herself with morphine. The price of morphine in Christchurch was $BO to $lOO an injection of 10 to 20 milligrams. Satherley had previous convictions, the police statement said. Mr Peter Dyhrberg for Satherley said that his client had made an effort to reduce her dependence on drugs. Since she had been remanded in custody she had a strong motivation to overcome her addiction. The morphine had been

mainly for her own use. Mr Justice Williamson J said that the maximum term for the offence Has 14 years imprisonment She had two conviclm for using morphine and was a solo mother with?.®-. nine-year-old daughter.’’ M When Satherley was first sentenced for using | morphine she was put on probation, but she never received any treatment ■ because she was believed ;■ not to be addicted. After her second conviction she was sentenced to a longer term of probation and did take some treatment It was unrealistic of Satherley to refuse intensive in-house treatment which required greater discipline than she was willing to impose on herself. There was no option but to sentence her to imprisonment because of the growth of the social evil of homebake. He would take into account that she had pleaded guilty and made some effect to cure her addiction. She had been warned, but continued to offend. Mr Justice Williamson directed that Satherley received treatment for her drug problem while in prison.