A LONDONER accused of leaving crack cocaine and cannabis in a Pinehurst shop claimed the drugs were not his - as he had robbed them from a dealer.
Stuart Randall, who appeared before Swindon Magistrates’ Court in connection with Saturday’s police presence outside the Whitworth Road Premier store, seemed unconcerned when magistrates told him he was being jailed for 12 weeks.
The 38-year-old Brit from Richmond-upon-Thames, who joked he was from Jamaica when asked his nationality by a court clerk, told JPs as he was marched from the dock: “12 weeks? That’s nothing. That’s a swim in the ocean.”
Randall, of no fixed address but with ties to Richmond-upon-Thames, pleaded guilty to possession of crack cocaine and cannabis and assaulting an emergency worker.
Prosecuting, Keith Ballinger said police had been called after 6am on Saturday, March 9, to the Premier store opposite the Moonrakers pub following an altercation between Randall and another man. The defendant had discarded a bag of and a rock of crack cocaine on the floor of the shop. The drugs were recovered by police.
Randall was taken to Gablecross Police Station and placed under watch as officers suspected he may have concealed other drugs. When he was seen putting his hands down his trousers, police officers asked him to stop. Randall refused and, as officers attempted to restrain him, kicked out hitting PC Shahi in the leg. The assault left no visible bruise.
Randall declined the services of a duty solicitor, instead opting to represent himself.
He went on to seemingly admit to the serious offence of robbery, a crime that carries a minimum sentence of a year imprisonment or strict community order.
“The drugs, yeah? They’re not mine,” he told magistrates. “I robbed them off some other drug dealer. They’re not mine.”
Leaning against the glass panel of the dock in court three at Swindon Magistrates’ Court, Randall pushed the point home: “I stopped that. I’m not dealing drugs.”
He lambasted the police, who he claimed had kept him handcuffed as he tried to sleep in his cell: “I have never been treated like that in any police station in my life, yeah? They’re taking the piss out of me.
“As you say, the policeman didn’t have visible injuries. It wasn’t even an assault, like. If I’d assaulted him he’d know about it.”
When the prosecutor suggested the police officer could be entitled to compensation, Randall interjected: “I ain’t giving him no money.”
And the suggestion that he had a previous conviction for assaulting a police officer drew similar frustration. The prosecutor was “chatting rubbish”. He had in fact squirted washing-up liquid into the face of a prison guard.
By admitting to the drugs and assault offences, Randall automatically activated an eight week suspended sentence prison given last November for a stalking offence.
Magistrates imposed the eight week suspended sentence in full, adding four weeks for possession of crack cocaine and a further eight weeks, to be served concurrently, for the cannabis and assault charges. In total, he was sentenced to 12 weeks in jail.
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