T in the Park drug users aged 16 to 62
FESTIVAL-GOERS aged from 16 to 62 were fined more than £5,000 after they admitted having drugs at T in the Park.
Ten people were fined £5,100 after being caught with drugs, including cocaine, ecstasy and cannabis.
This year’s T in the Park, at Strathallan Estate in Perthshire in July, was marred by the drug-related deaths of two teenagers and a 29year-old man.
On Tuesday, Perth Sheriff Court heard revellers who were caught with drugs had come from as far afield as Elgin and Cheshire.
A 16-year-old from Ayrshire, who cannot be named for legal reasons, admitted having cocaine and ten ecstasy tablets. Sentence was deferred for reports.
A 17-year-old from Hebden Bridge in Yorkshire was fined £150 after he admitted having ecstasy. Another 17-year-old, from Dunfermline, Fife, was fined £450.
Darlington woman Julie Robinson, 38, was hit with the biggest fine of £1,200 after she admitted having cocaine, ecstasy and cannabis.
The oldest reveller – 62-year-old Sean McLernon from Kilsyth, Lanarkshire – was fined £500 for ecstasy and cannabis resin possession.
Dominic Lamb, 46, from Bury, Greater Manchester, was fined £400 for having heroin and cannabis.
Brett Mathieson, 25, from Elgin, Moray, was fined £300; Claire Collier, 41, from Wilmslow, Cheshire, was fined £200; Christopher Smart, 29, of Kirkintilloch, Dunbartonshire, was fined £600; Steven Wishart, 25, from Glasgow, was fined £800; and Barry Wood, 25, of Dundee, was fined £500. All were convicted of possession of a controlled substance.
Sentence was deferred on Rhys Sutherland, 20, of Saline, Fife, after he admitted supplying MDMA.
Pathologists confirmed that illicit drugs were found in the system of 29-year-old father-of-three Jim Richardson, whose body was found in a field two days after the festival ended.
A verdict of ‘presumed drugs related’ was also recorded for teenagers Megan Bell, of County Durham, and Peter McCallum, of Lochgilphead, Argyll, who both died in a temporary hospital on the site of the festival.
Mid Scotland and Fife Tory MSP Murdo Fraser, said: ‘Festival organisers must take responsibility for public safety – and that includes discouraging the use of narcotics. Lessons must be learned.’
The circumstances of Mr Richardson’s death and Police Scotland’s initial response are under investigation by a force watchdog.