Five years for trafficking

Time on remand blamed for descent into dealing

A SERIAL offender acquitted of the murder of a Gold Coast nightclub promoter has blamed his descent into trafficking drugs using Facebook on the time he spent in custody awaiting trial for the killing.

Christopher James Cairns, 30, the son of a retired army officer, from Eagleby, was in the Supreme Court in Brisbane on Friday where he was sentenced to five years and six months prison after he pleaded guilty to two counts of trafficking over 10 months

2016.

The court heard that Cairns started selling ice, cannabis, ecstasy and steroids to customers using Facebook just three months after he was acquitted of the murder of Gold Coast nightclub promoter Tumara Cousins, who fell 31 storeys from a highrise balcony to his death five years ago.

He admitted running a business selling drugs until in 2015 and November 2015, but was forced to stop when he went to prison for three months for drug possession, and immediately went back to business on his release in February 2016.

Cairn’s barrister Bernard Reilly told the court that “perhaps” Cairns only sold drugs because “he couldn’t get a job” after he spent two years in prison on remand awaiting trial for the murder of Cousins.

During the trial prosecutors argued Cousins died in a $20,000 ice deal gone wrong but Cairns’ lawyers argued there was no proof he was at Cousins apartment when he fell to his death.

In court on Friday, Crown Prosecutor Brendan White said that Cairns supplied drugs on “at least 40 occasions” to at least 22 named customers as well as “a number of unidentifiable phone contacts”.

He mostly supplied ice, but also sold cannabis, ecstasy and steroids.

Justice Glenn Martin told the court that Mr Reilly had suggested Cairns had “practically advertised on Facebook” that he was selling drugs.

“When you had a new product you would contact your customers about it sometimes using Facebook Messenger,” Justice Martin said.

A previous court hearing heard police found several self- ies on Cairns’ phone showing him “holding bundles of cash” and “lying on the floor surrounded by stolen firearms”.

Other photos allegedly showed him pretending to flush cash down the toilet, and some selfies were posted on Facebook.

Justice Martin told the court that police were unable to calculate the exact number of times Cairns had supplied drugs because he used the encrypted application Wikr.

Cairns will be eligible for parole on April 12 next year.