Three days in watch house good for teen

THREE days in the watch house was enough to get a Toowoomba teenager caught up in drug offending back on track, the city’s Supreme Court heard.

Lachlan Edward Burton had left home, moved in with other drug users and had gone “off the rails”, his barrister Frank Martin told the court.

Despite a number of visits from police in a relatively short time, the then 18-year-old didn’t get it until he was remanded in custody for three days.

When he was brought into court he had seen his mother in the public gallery to whom he had mouthed, “I’m sorry”, which proved to be the catalyst to get him back on track, Mr Martin said.

Crown prosecutor Julie Aylward told the court a police search of the Toowoomba residence at which the teenager was staying in September last year had found 41 ecstasy tablets, 635g of marijuana and drug utensils in his bedroom.

Though unemployed at the time, Burton had $600 cash in his wallet which police believed was proceeds of drug sales, she said.

Another person at the residence had given an interview to police in which he nominated the teenager as having supplied him with marijuana, the court heard.

Mr Martin told the court since his arrest his client had “dragged himself out of the gutter”, had returned home to his supportive family and had attended counselling sessions to get himself off drug use.

His client had since had five clean drug tests and was studying for an engineering degree at university, he said.

The teenager had a new group of friends with whom he went fishing as opposed to using drugs, he said.

Mr Martin said his client had virtually no criminal history and asked that the convictions not be recorded so as not to impact negatively on the teen’s studies and future prospects of employment.

Justice Martin Burns said it appeared Burton was well on the path to rehabilitation and ordered the convictions not be recorded. Justice Burns placed the teenager on three years probation.