Blades Put In Cannabis Plants (Press, 22 March 1989)
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Summary: Blades Put In Cannabis Plants (Press, 22 March 1989)
On 22 March 1989, a man named Murray Alan Thomas, aged 29, was sentenced to nine months of periodic detention in the District Court due to serious drug-related offences. Judge Frampton emphasised the severity of Thomas's actions, which included embedding razor blades in the stems of cannabis plants as a means to prevent theft. The incidents occurred between 11 November 1988 and 20 February 1989. Thomas faced charges of cultivating cannabis, supplying it, and recklessly placing devices likely to injure others. When police executed a search warrant at Thomas's residence in Woolston, they discovered 310 grams of dried cannabis, 500 cannabis seeds, and ten large cannabis plants that measured 1.2 metres high with a diameter of 92 centimetres in his garden. The embedded razor blades were alarming, with some plants containing as many as five blades. Despite the dangerous method used to protect his plants, Thomas claimed that the cannabis was solely for his personal use and that he also supplied some to friends. His lawyer, Mr Mark Callaghan, argued for a non-custodial sentence, stating that there were no reported injuries from the razor blades. In a separate case, Phyllis Andrea Wilson, a 33-year-old sickness beneficiary and male transvestite, was fined $250 after admitting to obscenely exposing himself on Sherborne Street on 7 March 1989. Senior-Sergeant Ray Pope reported that Wilson was attempting to attract customers while naked in a dimly lit room with the curtains drawn back. Due to the nature of the offence and the need to deter similar behaviour, the Judge ordered immediate payment of the fine, warning that failure to comply would result in a 14-day prison sentence. Two passersby witnessed the incident, leading to Wilson's conviction.
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