Jury verdict ‘perverse’

Press, 1 March 1989, Page 12

Jury verdict ‘perverse’

Sentences of three months periodic detention were imposed in the District Court yesterday on Brian William Sheenan on two charges, one of which his counsel said the jury had been given a clear direction to acquit Sheenan.

Sheenan, aged 29, appeared for sentence yesterday after having been found guilty by a jury at his trial recently of charges of selling 3.38 g of cannabis to an undercover constable last March 10, and unlawfully receiving tyres and rims worth $1920 on June 17. At the trial, Mr B. M. Stanaway, for the Crown, said the Crown conceded in relation to both charges that Sheenan was not the principal offender but was a party to the offences by aidinjg and abetting another person. The Crown accepted that Sheenan played a minor part in the can-

nabis deal, but contended he had the necessary intent to be involved in the sale, Mr Stanaway said.

Evidence at the trial was that Sheenan told the under-cover constable outside a hotel that another man had something for him in the car. The other man later told the under-cover constable he had something for him, and as they approached the car Sheenan handed out a small package. This was later analysed as containing 3.36 g of cannabis.

The Misuse of Drugs Act presumes that a person has cannabis for sale, where there is no other evidence of a sale being made, if the quantity of the drug he has is 28g or more.

At the trial, Judge Erber referred to the legal maxim, De minimis non cuvat lex — the law does not concern itself with trifles — and told

jurors they might find force in Mr Glue’s submissions relating to the minor nature of the offence.

The Judge said the jury could not come to the same conclusion, however, about the receiving charge. Counsel, Mr M. J. Glue, said yesterday the jury’s action in finding Sheenan guilty of the drug offence was “quite perverse and unwarranted” in view of what he termed a clear direction to acquit. Mr Glue had sought a short term of periodic detention.

The Judge said he did not propose to comment on the jury’s verdict on the drug charge. On the receiving charge, there was no doubt Sheenan had been a party to the offence.

He imposed concurrent sentences of three months periodic detention on each charge.