Kirwan man cops one year in jail for Bali joint

TOWNSVILLE’S Nicholas James Langan ( pictured) has been sentenced to one year in jail by a Denpasar court for smoking marijuana on a Bali beach. The sentence was lighter than the four years sought by prosecutors and will be backdated to his arrest date, J

TOWNSVILLE’S Nicholas James Langan’s crime was to share a joint of marijuana on a Bali beach.

For the offence, he has been jailed for one year.

Judges in the Denpasar District Court in Bali yesterday found the Kirwan man guilty of abusing a type one narcotic.

The sentence will be backdated to the time of his arrest, on January 26 this year, but it is unlikely he would qualify for sentence remissions before his release date.

The Indonesian man with whom he shared the marijuana and who sourced it for them, was also sentenced to one year in jail. The sentence was con- siderably less than the four years demanded by prosecutors, which at the time had raised eyebrows due to its severity.

The prosecutors have seven days to decide if they will appeal.

Presiding judge, Cening Budiana, said both men had been proven guilty of committing the crime together, abusing a type one narcotic for self- consumption. The maximum sentence for this is four years behind bars. The more serious charge which Langan had faced, of drug possession, was dismissed.

“The defendants’ actions were contrary to the Government’s program of eradicating narcotics,” Judge Budiana said.

“The defendants’ were pol- ite during the trial process, forthright during the trial process and they are still young and never committed a crime before,” he said in handing down the sentence.

Langan was arrested on January 26 this year, just days into a Bali surfing holiday and has been locked up ever since, initially in the police cells and now at Kerobokan prison.

Justice officials said yesterday that Langan would not be eligible for sentence remissions until six months after his verdict, by which time he would due for release anyway.

During his trial, Langan delivered a heartfelt apology to the court, to Indonesia and asked that he be allowed to return home. He admitted his own stupidity.