rm1x
Ex-Bluelighter
- Joined
- Aug 23, 2003
- Messages
- 2,646
From here
An artist caught with 73 bags of magic mushrooms at the Glastonbury pop festival told a jury yesterday he was not intending to sell them - he was going to use them to make a model of a volcano Stephen Thomas, 43, pleaded not guilty at Bristol Crown Court to possessing a Class A drug with intent to supply.
And after a day of deliberating on his unusual defence argument the jury was unable to agree a verdict and was discharged.
The Crown Prosecution Service has a week to decide whether to have the case re-tried or drop the charge.
Prosecutor Paul Cook said that on June 27 last year Thomas was spotted stuffing the mushrooms into a bag by security guard James Mc-Kinney at the pop gathering.
Thomas, who at the time was high on psilocin - the fungi's hallucinogenic chemical - made a dash for freedom but was caught and handcuffed by police.
His false wig and ponytail fell off in the struggle - at which he allegedly said to officers: "That was my cunning disguise - it didn't work did it?"
They discovered he was carrying 73 bags of dried mushrooms, which he told them he intended to sell for £10 each - although later he denied any intent to sell the packages.
In a police interview Thomas boasted that he could consume "a couple of hundred at one time because his body had got used to them," said Mr Cook.
Thomas admitted drying the mushrooms, picked near his home in Sheffield, to prepare them for consumption.
He said he only learned that magic mushrooms were a class A drug when other detained festival goers told him after his arrest.
Asked what he intended to do with the 73 bags he told the jury: "I was going to make a magic mushroom sculpture in the Green Field (the hippies' field at Glastonbury)."
"I was going to make a sculpture of a volcano and gaze up at it."
An artist caught with 73 bags of magic mushrooms at the Glastonbury pop festival told a jury yesterday he was not intending to sell them - he was going to use them to make a model of a volcano Stephen Thomas, 43, pleaded not guilty at Bristol Crown Court to possessing a Class A drug with intent to supply.
And after a day of deliberating on his unusual defence argument the jury was unable to agree a verdict and was discharged.
The Crown Prosecution Service has a week to decide whether to have the case re-tried or drop the charge.
Prosecutor Paul Cook said that on June 27 last year Thomas was spotted stuffing the mushrooms into a bag by security guard James Mc-Kinney at the pop gathering.
Thomas, who at the time was high on psilocin - the fungi's hallucinogenic chemical - made a dash for freedom but was caught and handcuffed by police.
His false wig and ponytail fell off in the struggle - at which he allegedly said to officers: "That was my cunning disguise - it didn't work did it?"
They discovered he was carrying 73 bags of dried mushrooms, which he told them he intended to sell for £10 each - although later he denied any intent to sell the packages.
In a police interview Thomas boasted that he could consume "a couple of hundred at one time because his body had got used to them," said Mr Cook.
Thomas admitted drying the mushrooms, picked near his home in Sheffield, to prepare them for consumption.
He said he only learned that magic mushrooms were a class A drug when other detained festival goers told him after his arrest.
Asked what he intended to do with the 73 bags he told the jury: "I was going to make a magic mushroom sculpture in the Green Field (the hippies' field at Glastonbury)."
"I was going to make a sculpture of a volcano and gaze up at it."
