A man has been caught with cannabis and tobacco stuffed in his anus just moments before he was due for sentencing in Inverell Local Court.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Guyra's Andrew Michael Kirk, 41, was allegedly preparing for a prison sentence for three charges on Thursday, stemming from a road rage incident near Tingha which had left a woman terrified and her car severely damaged.
Kirk's charges were for driving recklessly and dangerously, not reversing vehicle safely, and driving with drugs in his system.
READ ALSO
But another charge was added when, at 10.20am Thursday morning, police received a tip-off.
Kirk had been seen going into the public toilets right outside the court house with a clear plastic bag - and coming out empty handed.
When officers went into the toilet after him, they found empty condom packets strewn across the floor. He was then questioned and stripped for a search.
Seeing a condom emerging from his anus, they asked him to pull it out and he did, telling them it was a tobacco and cannabis mixture. He was arrested.
Just next door at the police station, his solicitor Guy Newby was called in and told Kirk had just been found with 17.97 grams of the mixture. He was charged with drug possession.
The police statement tendered to court read that officers believed he'd made the stash under the assumption he would be going straight to prison from the court house, and wanted the drugs with him.
About four hours later, he was sentenced for possession along with his other matters.
His original charges concerned a road rage incident on the Guyra Road near Tingha in July last year.
Kirk, with a young person in the car at the time, reversed into a driver behind him.
She had beeped her horn to let him know she was there when he slowed, almost stopping in the middle of the road.
She had just witnessed him drive all over the stretch coming towards her, skidding, leaving the bitumen, changing directions and ending up two car-lengths in front of her.
A witness came along and helped the woman, who had called 000 and remained on the phone terrified of Kirk, who they heard revving his car in the scrubland near the Old Mill Road.
Highway patrol arrested him close to Guyra, after Kirk had accelerated away from another police car which tried to pull him over.
Later, blood and urine tests taken at Guyra hospital showed he had cannabis, methadone, Delta-9 THC acid, diazepane and nordiazepam in his system.
To bring drugs on your body near the court house speaks of desperation ... no sentence other than prison is appropriate.
- Magistrate Holly Kemp
Magistrate Holly Kemp said the "whole episode is truly frightening", "staggeringly wrong" and that he had "abandoned all sense of reasonable responsibility".
She decided it was in the community's interest that he serve his prison time not in a cell, but outside where he could do community service.
She added: "to bring drugs on your body near the court house speaks of desperation ... no sentence other than prison is appropriate."
He got a 12-month Intensive Corrections Order for both the drive recklessly and the drug driving charges, to be supervised by Armidale Community Corrections. He was ordered to abstain from drugs and undergo rehabilitation programs. He then received 50 hours community service for each.
For reversing dangerously, he was convicted and fined $700.
And for the stashing of the drugs, he copped another 12-month ICO, this time without community service but with the same conditions as the other orders.
Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can access our trusted content:
- Bookmark inverelltimes.com.au
- Make sure you are signed up for our breaking and regular headlines newsletters
- Follow us on Twitter: @inverelltimes
- Follow us on Instagram @inverelltimes
- Follow us on Google New
