Community rallies to keep ‘eccentric’ drug user out of jail

Eccentricity in my view does not detract from the seriousness of your offending.

Close to 40 members of a Central Otago community wrote to a judge ‘‘imploring’’ him to keep a 59-yearold woman, who was supplying locals with cannabis, out of jail.

Judge Stephen Coyle sentenced Denise Lorraine Barnett to 350 hours’ community work and 12 months’ supervision on three charges relating to possession and cultivation of cannabis, and possession of a pipe for consumption of cannabis when she appeared in the Alexandra District Court yesterday.

On February 7, police executed a search warrant at her home and discovered 50 ‘‘healthy’’ and ‘‘mature’’ cannabis plants, as well as 3.5 kilos of cannabis inside two large rubbish bags and a suitcase.

Lawyer Kieran Tohill described the woman, who sat hunched over in a wheelchair in front of the judge, as an eccentric hoarder who had the support of the community.

Tohill told the judge 37 community members ‘‘from all walks of life’’ had signed a letter ‘‘imploring’’ the judge to keep Barnett in the community, saying they did not need protection from her. They said Barnett needed their support.

Barnett had a troubled background – as a young person she was institutionalised at Cherry Farm, after which she lived on the street and in 1989 shifted to Naseby where she had been ever since, gaining the trust of the community and taking part in volunteer work, Tohill said.

The judge said Barnett was clearly a ‘‘local icon’’ for the Naseby community.

‘‘Despite your troubled background, you have clearly become a popular member of that community. I accept you are an important and valued member of the community, but eccentricity in my view does not detract from the seriousness of your offending.

‘‘You acknowledged you also supply cannabis to friends at times, you give it away other times, you sell it, but you have said rather than keeping the money yourself you donate it.’’

The offending was not opportunistic and she had been supplying cannabis to an underground cannabis culture within the Naseby community for a lengthy time, the judge said.

‘‘Fifty plants is not insignificant . . . the court needs to send a clear message members of the community cannot grow cannabis to this extent and supply the local community, no matter how cute and endearing the supplier is.’’

However, the judge said he recognised the court at times had to act humanely in recognition of those who come before it.

‘‘The court of justice also needs to be a court of humanity. You are elderly, you are clearly unwell and indeed today you are present in a wheelchair, such is the extent of your ill health. A sentence of imprisonment would be cruel and harsh.’’

Judge Stephen Coyle