Dealer got out after man had ‘bad trip’—counsel

Press, 19 December 1986, Page 7

Dealer got out after man had ‘bad trip’ —counsel

Because of a “bad LSD trip” a man went berserk and wrecked a house at Ruby Bay, Nelson, which preyed on the mind of his supplier who got out of drug dealing, Mr Justice Holland was told in the High Court yesterday. His Honour jailed Keith Malcolm Austin, aged 27, unemployed, for 18 months on charges of supplying and dealing in LSD, a class A drug. Austin was the last to be sentenced from the drug ring master-minded by David Alistair Jarvis, aged 33, a nurseryman of Ruby Bay, who was jailed for nine years. Numerous persons were arrested in dawn raids at the end of July after a three-month police undercover investigation code named “Omen” which smashed a major drug ring dealing mainly in LSD and some heroin. Earlier this week, Mr Justice Holland sentenced Steven Henry Stockley, aged 24, unemployed, in the High Court in Wellington to three years jail on a charge of dealing in LSD.

Electronic listening devices, known as bugs, were placed in the home of Jarvis in Ruby Bay,

under a warrant issued by a High Court Judge under the Misuse of Drugs Act, the police statement said. Evidence was being sought about LSD and heroin being imported and distributed. Austin received 400 tabs of LSD from Jarvis on credit, some of which he sold for $lO each. On May 11 Austin was looking after Jarvis’s house at Ruby Bay when a man arrived with a request for LSD. After taking some of the tablets he became violent and uncontrollable and started to wreck the place. The police were called and he was arrested. When arrested, Austin admitted selling LSD to about 25 persons, and had returned about 125 of the tablets which had not been sold to Jarvis. He said that he had dealt in the drug because he was broke and he wanted a quick way of making money. He then realised the implications of what he had done and had felt guilty, the police statement said. For Austin, Mrs Deirdre Orchard said that as a

child her client had been hyperactive and lacked the ability to concentrate, which resulted in learning difficulties. Many of his jobs had been seasonal, but he was a good worker and was employed by the Forestry Service for a time. His parents said that he was kind and generous and was inclined to take in strays. After Austin returned to work on his parents’ farm in the Nelson district, it was a big blow to him when the farm was sold under a mortgagee sale. At times he suffered from severe emotional stress and had experimented with a number of drugs. For most of last year he was on a sickness benefit. When the man he had given LSD began to smash up Jarvis’s house, Austin was shocked and horrified

by the reaction. He resolved immediately to get out of drug dealing. He returned the remaining LSD to Jarvis and went back to Nelson, abandoning the garden he had spent so much effort on. Austin had made no real financial gain from drug dealing, which had resulted from his being under the influence of Jarvis’s strong personality, Mrs Orchard said. Mr Justice Holland said that it was significant that Austin, having seen the horrific effects of LSD, appreciated the enormity of what he had done. He had then returned the remaining tablets to the dealer. This put him in a different category from the others involved as he had voluntarily withdrawn from drug dealing before being detected.