Paul A. Reid, Staff ReporterWESTERN BUREAU:
A 22-YEAR-OLD former British soldier who told the Montego Bay Resident Magistrate's Court yesterday that the 214.6 grams (7.57 ounces) of cocaine he was held with while trying to leave the island after Spring Break holidays on March 28 was for 'research', was fined and sentenced to 12 months in jail.
Resident Magistrate Valerie Stephens refused to accept Deno Saddler's reason for having the drug in his possession hidden in his clothes and ingested.
The British national who came across as quite intelligent, and who told the court he was studying chemical technology a degree that would eventually lead to medicine at Austin University in Birmingham, was held with 33 packages of cocaine.
He was found to have 21 pellets in the lining of his pants waists, one pellet in the lining of an army camouflage jacket and he also passed out another 11 pellets between March 28 and 31 after he was taken to Cornwall Regional Hospital.
MANDATORY SENTENCE
He was fined $100,000 or six months at hard labour for possession of cocaine and $150,000 for taking steps to export cocaine. He will serve a mandatory sentence of 12 months but could serve another year as RM Stephens ruled the alternate sentences are to run consecutively.
Saddler pleaded guilty to possession of cocaine and taking steps to export the drug but pleaded not guilty to dealing. That charge was eventually withdrawn.
Saddler, who ran from the Sangster International Airport on March 28 when he was being searched at the security check point was chased and held in some bushes on the airport property, appealed to the court for leniency as a prison sentence would severely "hamper my career".
"I am not a criminal," he continued. "I was just not thinking when I tried this and made a stupid mistake."
He told the court that being in lock-up was a "shock to my system as there are people there who will kill you for your own possessions".
