Jersey Unreported Judgments

[2009]JRC155

ROYAL COURT

(Samedi Division)

4^th August 2009

The Attorney General

-v-

Ryan Stephen Murphy

Sentencing by the Superior Number of the Royal Court, to which the accused was remanded by the Inferior Number on 19^th June, 2009, following guilty pleas to the following charges:

Age:  24.

Plea: Guilty.

Details of Offence:

On Saturday 4^th April, 2009, Customs Officers conducted a search of a St Helier property, which belongs to the parents of Georgina Bellot, the girlfriend of the defendant.  At the time of the search the house was unoccupied.  In a rucksack in the garage, a clear plastic bag of brown powder was found wrapped in a towel.  On analysis this was found to be 709 grams of heroin.  A Customs expert has estimated that the street value of the heroin is £709,000, and a wholesale value between £212,700 and £354,500.

On Saturday 6^th April, 2009, Customs Officers searched the defendants' mother's house which was the defendant's primary residence.  Bellot and the defendant were in his bedroom.  They were arrested and cautioned.  The defendant said that he had just flushed the only controlled drugs on the premises down the toilet.  Two clingfilm wrapped packages were recovered and found to contain 87 milligrams of cannabis oil (value £15) and 1.68 grams of cannabis resin (value £10).

The defendant was interviewed the same evening.  After initial denials, he admitted that he had hidden the rucksack in the garage without his girlfriend's knowledge, on behalf of persons unknown, as a favour.  He refused to give the name of the person, and he said that he was not coerced in any way to look after the drugs.

The defendant said that he thought the bag contained three '9 bars' of cannabis.  He claimed that although he had looked inside the front of the bag and removed a set of electronic scales and placed them in Bellot's bedroom, but that he had not looked inside the main compartment of the bag.

Details of Mitigation:

Guilty plea, youth, exonerated girlfriend and her parents.

Previous Convictions:

Four previous convictions, none drug-related.

Conclusions:

Total:  8 years' imprisonment.

Forfeiture and destruction of drugs sought.

Sentence and Observations of Court:

Conclusions granted.

R. C. P. Pedley, Esq., Crown Advocate.

Advocate M. J. Haines for the Defendant.

JUDGMENT

THE commissioner:

1.        This defendant has pleaded guilty to possession with intent to supply of 709 grams of heroin.  That is a very substantial quantity with a street value of £709,000 and a wholesale value of between £200,000 and £350,000. 

2.        The Crown has agreed that Murphy is to be regarded as a minder, although in sentencing terms that is not a significant mitigating factor.  A person who is entrusted with £700,000 worth of drugs is clearly fairly close to the dealer.  Murphy claims that he thought the drugs were cannabis but that is not a mitigating factor; he could have found out with minimal effort that it was heroin.  He removed the scales from the bag and chose not to look further inside.  It is also, in one sense, an aggravating feature that he left the heroin at the house of his girlfriend's parents and potentially involved them in his offending.

3.        The Crown Advocate has taken a starting point of 15 years' imprisonment.  That is in line with the guideline case of Rimmer, Lusk and Bade-v-AG [2001] JLR 373 and despite the submissions of defence counsel, we think it is correct.

4.        In mitigation Ryan has admitted his offending at an early stage and pleaded guilty to the Indictment.  He exonerated his girlfriend and her parents which mitigates the fact that he hid the drugs at their home.  He is a young man, now aged 24.  We are reluctant to send young men of his age to prison for a very long time.  On the other hand, the harm that might have been done to society if this quantity of heroin had found its way onto the streets of Jersey is almost incalculable.  As this Court has said on so many occasions, heroin is a vicious and addictive drug and those who traffic in it or help those who deal in it must expect severe sentences.

5.        Ryan, you knew what you were doing, you told the Police that you were not coerced, and you must be taken therefore to have accepted the consequences of what you were doing.  We have read your letter very carefully and we are glad to see that you are making the most of your time in prison.  We have also read the letters from your parents and from other members of your family and friends and it is very sad for them that you have placed yourself in this position.  At the end of the day we have to punish you for what you did.

6.        The conclusions are granted and you are sentenced to 8 years' imprisonment.

7.        We order the forfeiture and destruction of the drugs.

Authorities

Rimmer, Lusk and Bade-v-AG [2001] JLR 373.

Whelan's aspects on Sentencing in the Superior Court of Jersey.

Welsh-v-AG 2002/72.

AG-v-Smith [2009] JRC 063.

AG-v-Hume, Carter and Allen [2005] JRC 051.