Man goes free after drug offences

9:26am Monday 14th January 2008

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A 24-year-old man who was involved in the supply of heroin in Swindon has walked free from court.

Jeris Ryan assaulted two police officers as he was arrested outside the Jewel in the Crown restaurant at the bottom of Victoria Road.

And he had to be rushed to hospital after he bit into a rock of crack cocaine swallowing some of it and leaving other chunks lying on the pavement.

But after hearing how he was just trying to fund his own drug habit a judge at Swindon crown court decided to impose a suspended sentence.

Claire Marlow, prosecuting, said police officer on plain clothes patrol spotted Ryan just before midday on Friday September 28 last year.

They followed him from the Victoria Road area after he got in a car and approached him as he got out by the curry house near the Groundwell Road junction.

She said he was walking away talking on his mobile with another man as they went up to him and identified themselves as police officers.

There was then a violent struggle during which both officers suffered cuts and bruises as they tried to detain him.

Miss Marlow said during the struggle Ryan shouted at the man he had been walking with asking him to take something from his hand.

The officers also noticed white powder around his mouth and one saw a cling film wrap with the substance in it.

Once he was detained a total of 13 small rocks of a hard white substance were removed from the pavement.

When he was strip searched a small wrap was found his front trouser pocket with 2 grams of heroin and 2.7 grams of crack cocaine.

He told officers he had also bitten into a 4 gram rock of crack and swallowed some of it while other pieces landed on the pavement.

She said he was taken to hospital before being questioned because of the quantity of drugs he may have ingested.

Ryan later told police he had bought an eighth of heroin and an eighth of crack cocaine.

Miss Marlow said that in the weeks before his arrest Ryan was spotted on CCTV handing a package to someone in the food court at the Outlet Centre and receiving money for it.

Ryan, of Victoria Road, pleaded guilty to being concerned in the supply of the heroin and possession of cocaine. He also admitted two counts of assaulting a police officer.

Mark Ruffell, defending, said he admitted the more serious offence on the basis that he was doing it to fund his own habit.

After buying the drugs he said he had been asked to take some heroin to another person on their behalf.

He said Ryan had been on remand for more than three months and had been undergoing group therapy to get off drugs while inside.

Passing a one year jail term suspended for 18 months Judge Douglas Field told Ryan "Drugs are your problem and that is why you are here having committed these offences."

He also ordered he complete a drug rehabilitation requirement and an assisting substance related offending programme and forfeit the £140 he had on him when he was arrested.