Crime Correspondent: Gloucester Crown Court

Graham Harris guilty of possessing 25.3g of cocaine with intent to supply

Graham Harris, 56, claimed the drug was for his own use because prescription drugs did not help him. But at an earlier hearing a jury had found him guilty of having it with intent to supply, as well as possession. At Gloucester Crown Court yesterday, Judge William Hart said a sentence of five years would be normal in such a case but because of the circumstances he was able to reduce it to three years.At the earlier hearing, a jury found Harris, 56, of Severn Road, guilty of possessing 25.3g of cocaine with intent to supply.They acquitted him of possessing criminal property – £5,000 in cash.Harris admitted possession of cannabis and was given a concurrent one-month sentence for that offence. Prosecutor Giles Nelson told the jury police raided Harris's home on July 13 last year and found cannabis, cocaine and the cash."This was a significant find of drugs," Mr Nelson said, adding the street value of the cocaine at the time was up to £1,265.Giving evidence, Harris told the jury he had started using cocaine after going through a "serious bad patch" in 2002 and had since used the drug to battle his depression. "I tried to commit suicide by cutting my wrists," he said. "I lost seven pints of blood and I'm lucky to be alive today, to be honest with you." Questioned by his legal representative Jason Coulter, Harris said that in 2006 a friend had suggested he try cocaine to "bring (himself) through it". "I tried it and it just lifted me," he told the jury. When asked by Mr Coulter why he might have had such a large amount of the drug if it was not for supply, he replied: "It is so I don't have to worry about going into that fraternity of people for quite a while." The cash was mostly in a safe inside the house but about £660 was found in a wallet hidden under a mattress in the master bedroom, the court was told. With the cocaine police also found two replica handguns, a machete and a baseball bat.Harris said one of the handguns belonged to his son, the machete was used to cut willow and the baseball bat was for a game. Before sentence was passed Susan Cavanagh, for Harris, said the cocaine found in the house was of only 20% purity and so was worth about £250 and not the £1,265 originally suggested.Judge Hart said although the amount of cocaine found suggested supply, he did not consider Harris a street dealer.A confiscation hearing will be held on December 16.

Graham Harris guilty of possessing 25.3g of cocaine with intent to supply

Graham Harris, 56, claimed the drug was for his own use because prescription drugs did not help him. But at an earlier hearing a jury had fo...

Victoria Baptist,Mark Franklin

Victoria Baptist, who is on trial at Gloucester Crown Court with co-accused Mark Franklin, told police Tritton had asked her to pick up the chemicals for a friend of his - who needed it for motocross. "I didn't know what the process was," she told officers, referring to her not understanding how the chemical was used in motor sport, when she was interviewed at Stroud police station. Earlier the trial heard that forensic scientists discovered methanol and other chemicals when they raided an address in Edinburgh, and discovered buckets of liquid with rubber material floating in it. Scientist Adele Lange told the jury that methanol was a solvent, which could be used to withdraw cocaine from the rubber. They heard today how police had found at Baptist's home, after a search warrant was executed on August 25, 2005, a receipt for 75 litres of the chemical from a Bristol based company. When asked how the chemical she picked up was contained, she said: "It was like some barrels - two feet tall. I think there were three of them." "That's quite a lot of liquid isn't it?" said the police interviewer. "Yes," was the reply from Baptist. When asked what then happened, Baptist said she drove the chemicals to Cirencester where "Peter's friend had picked them up" in a car park. She told police she thought the man's name was Bill, but she didn't know the surname. He was in his late forties, of big build and grey haired, she said. After talking to the man for a while, she told officers that Bill had "just stuck them in his car and said goodbye". The jury has already heard how Baptist and Franklin were allegedly part of a gang which ingeniously smuggled cocaine impregnated in camping equipment. The Class A drug would be absorbed into the material and then re-constituted using a chemical process once it had been brought into the country at two home "laboratories", in Scotland and London, which were raided by police. The first major seizure was at an address in Hamlet Rd, Crystal Palace, London on September 15, 2004 where three and a half kilos of cocaine were seized. At this property, officers found drums of chemicals and the cocaine was in the middle of the process of being extracted back out, the court has heard. A flat at Wellington Place in Edinburgh was later uncovered to be a second cocaine laboratory, full of the equipment to process the Class A drug. The linchpin in the operation was a man called Peter Tritton, who having been arrested in Ecuador in August 2005, is currently serving 12 years in prison there, the prosecution has explained. Prosecutor Tim Probert-Wood said: "Both these defendants were, in different ways, connected to Peter Tritton." He said Victoria Baptist, who was Tritton's girlfriend, was arrested with him in a hotel room in Ecuador in August 2005. They were found there with 7.8kg of cocaine after Tritton had been monitored for months by the serious organised crime squad and South American officers. Franklin was then arrested, along with others, back in the UK. Baptist, 35, of Paganhill Estate, Paganhill, Stroud, and Franklin, 31, of Chapel street, Stroud, have pleaded not guilty to conspiring together, and with Tritton, Alex Portocarrera, James Fletcher and others, to evade the prohibition on the importation of a controlled drug of Class A between June 1, 2004 and August 15, 2005.

Victoria Baptist,Mark Franklin

Victoria Baptist, who is on trial at Gloucester Crown Court with co-accused Mark Franklin, told police Tritton had asked her to pick up the ...