hoptis
Bluelight Crew
- Joined
- May 1, 2002
- Messages
- 11,083
ABC journalist faces up to 10 months in Changi prison after pleading guilty
Tom Allard, Singapore
December 3, 2008
FORMER senior ABC journalist Peter Lloyd will spend up to 10 months in a communal cell in Changi, sleeping on a straw mat on a concrete floor, after pleading guilty yesterday to three drugs charges, including possessing "ice".
Lloyd was composed as judge Hamidah Ibrahim read out the sentence: eight months for possession, the same amount for consumption, and two months for possessing drug paraphernalia with traces of the party drug ketamine.
The two eight-month sentences will run concurrently, and a term of less than a year is far better than Lloyd could have expected when he was initially arrested and charged.
Prosecutors had told Singapore's subordinate court Lloyd had paid $S1000 ($A1025) for a quantity of methamphetamine, or ice, the day after he arrived in Singapore for medical treatment in July. A week later, he was arrested and had his hospital room searched by police, who uncovered drugs, glass tubes, stoppers and bottles used to consume ice.
Police had arrested Lloyd after an associate, Sani bin Saidi, had tipped them off Lloyd was his supplier. This led to a trafficking charge which carried a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and 15 lashes of a rattan cane.
After representations from Lloyd's legal team, the trafficking charge was dropped.
His legal team also convinced prosecutors not to press for a "deterrent" sentence, arguing Lloyd's offence was a one-off, he was contrite and was responding to treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder.
He was the ABC's Delhi correspondent when he was arrested and had previously been posted in Bangkok for the national broadcaster. He covered the two Bali bombings, the Aceh tsunami and suicide attacks in Karachi, which led to the illness.
"My client is not a drug abuser," his lawyer, Hamidul Haq, told the court. "The main reason he had endeavoured to have the drugs was to deal with a mental illness.
"It became a sort of self-medication for him," Mr Haq said. "He was not taking drugs for recreational purposes."
He was desperate to return to Australia to see his two sons. His older boy had a life-threatening illness and needed the care of his father, Mr Haq said.
Lloyd, who emerged as gay months before his arrest, was supported by his former wife, Kirsty McIvor, and two friends.
Changi prison is a modern complex but is spartan and run strictly. Medium-security prisoners do not have beds and share cells with two others. When a warden comes by, prisoners have to stop what they are doing and stand to attention and address them as sir, according to a recent account in British newspaper the Daily Mail.
Lloyd has been on paid leave since his arrest but an ABC spokeswoman said his employment with the broadcaster had ended yesterday.
"This is due to the fact that Peter is unavailable to work," she said. "The ABC has valued and respected Peter as an employee and as an outstanding journalist who is widely admired by colleagues and industry peers."
The ABC spent more than $65,000 on legal support, counselling and related travel expenses since Lloyd's arrest.
The Age
Tom Allard, Singapore
December 3, 2008
FORMER senior ABC journalist Peter Lloyd will spend up to 10 months in a communal cell in Changi, sleeping on a straw mat on a concrete floor, after pleading guilty yesterday to three drugs charges, including possessing "ice".
Lloyd was composed as judge Hamidah Ibrahim read out the sentence: eight months for possession, the same amount for consumption, and two months for possessing drug paraphernalia with traces of the party drug ketamine.
The two eight-month sentences will run concurrently, and a term of less than a year is far better than Lloyd could have expected when he was initially arrested and charged.
Prosecutors had told Singapore's subordinate court Lloyd had paid $S1000 ($A1025) for a quantity of methamphetamine, or ice, the day after he arrived in Singapore for medical treatment in July. A week later, he was arrested and had his hospital room searched by police, who uncovered drugs, glass tubes, stoppers and bottles used to consume ice.
Police had arrested Lloyd after an associate, Sani bin Saidi, had tipped them off Lloyd was his supplier. This led to a trafficking charge which carried a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and 15 lashes of a rattan cane.
After representations from Lloyd's legal team, the trafficking charge was dropped.
His legal team also convinced prosecutors not to press for a "deterrent" sentence, arguing Lloyd's offence was a one-off, he was contrite and was responding to treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder.
He was the ABC's Delhi correspondent when he was arrested and had previously been posted in Bangkok for the national broadcaster. He covered the two Bali bombings, the Aceh tsunami and suicide attacks in Karachi, which led to the illness.
"My client is not a drug abuser," his lawyer, Hamidul Haq, told the court. "The main reason he had endeavoured to have the drugs was to deal with a mental illness.
"It became a sort of self-medication for him," Mr Haq said. "He was not taking drugs for recreational purposes."
He was desperate to return to Australia to see his two sons. His older boy had a life-threatening illness and needed the care of his father, Mr Haq said.
Lloyd, who emerged as gay months before his arrest, was supported by his former wife, Kirsty McIvor, and two friends.
Changi prison is a modern complex but is spartan and run strictly. Medium-security prisoners do not have beds and share cells with two others. When a warden comes by, prisoners have to stop what they are doing and stand to attention and address them as sir, according to a recent account in British newspaper the Daily Mail.
Lloyd has been on paid leave since his arrest but an ABC spokeswoman said his employment with the broadcaster had ended yesterday.
"This is due to the fact that Peter is unavailable to work," she said. "The ABC has valued and respected Peter as an employee and as an outstanding journalist who is widely admired by colleagues and industry peers."
The ABC spent more than $65,000 on legal support, counselling and related travel expenses since Lloyd's arrest.
The Age