Gym boss cleared of drug charges
15 May 2007
STRATHDALE gym owner Jarrod Butler has been cleared of drug importation charges.
A jury in the Melbourne County Court yesterday found Butler, 38, not guilty on charges of importing a Tier One good and possessing ephedrine.
On April 18, 2004, police arrested Shane Geoffrey Charter, a former personal trainer and pharmaceutical salesman who trained elite footballers at Butler's gym, the eelgood Family Fitness Centre.
The court heard police from the Major Drug Investigation Unit investigating the importation of drugs from Malaysia found Charter possessing more than 100,000 pseudoephedrine-based tablets.
Early the next day, police searched Butler's gym, where they found a parcel containing 7000 ephedrine tablets.
The crown alleged Butler knowingly imported several such packages from overseas.
The jury heard evidence from Charter that he and Butler's father, Lawrence, were part of an operation importing ephedrine and pseudoephedrine from Malaysia.
During her closing address to the jury on Friday, crown prosecutor Rosemary Carlin noted Charter's evidence that Butler had ordered ephedrine from him.
Butler told the court he had agreed to receive the parcels on behalf of Charter, who wanted to try out a vitamin B supplement from overseas.
He said he never opened any of the bottles of pills, and had not believed they were anything other than vitamin B.
On Friday, defence barrister Max Perry said Charter, who decided to become a crown witness upon pleading guilty to the matters in July last year, had everything to gain and nothing to lose by offering up someone to the crown.
"He gave away the poor silly idiot who believed he was receiving vitamins at the gym," Mr Perry said.
"Stupidity is not a crime.
"Trust is not a crime."
Though Charter and Lawrence Butler were "in it up to their necks", this did not mean a person was guilty by association, Mr Perry said.
The jury was sent out to consider their verdict on Friday afternoon before being excused for the weekend.
They returned to court yesterday morning and delivered their verdict in the mid-afternoon.
Butler will face a charge of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice at a later date.
The Advertiser attempted to contact Mr Butler yesterday, but a call was not returned by the time of publication.
