Community service for Ecstasy deal that caused death

Published on Tuesday 7 April 2009 22:22

A MECHANIC who supplied the drugs that killed a workmate was spared a jail sentence yesterday and ordered to carry out 300 hours of community service.

In April 2007, Ryan Smith, 24, had been asked to obtain Ecstasy tablets as a favour for Russell Johnston, 19, who later collapsed in a nightclub and died in hospital a few days later.

A judge told Smith, of Overton Road, Clydebank, that anyone convicted of supplying class A drugs would normally receive a custodial sentence.

But Lady Smith said she was satisfied that there were exceptional circumstances in the case which allowed a community-based disposal.

Some experts have challenged her view. Professor Neil McKeganey, the director of Glasgow University's centre for drug misuse research, said he believed non-custodial sentences were being imposed increasingly in Scotland, adding: "I think it is quite inappropriate."

He said: "I think where the supply involves class A drugs, it is quite wrong to be giving community sentences, because the interpretation will be that it is not an offence of such significance."

However John Arthur, a drugs worker, backed the judge.

He said: "The man in this case will have to live with the consequences of what he has done, albeit it was an accident.

"If the judge was satisfied it was not intentional, I am sure this kind of sentence would be appropriate."

Smith was originally accused of the culpable homicide of Mr Johnston, but following a recent appeal court ruling in such cases, the Crown dropped the charge and he pleaded guilty to being concerned in the supplying of Ecstasy.

Mr Johnston, from Powmill, Perth and Kinross, had attended Dollar Academy from 2002 until 2005 and was captain of the school's football team.

He moved to Partick and after a period at Glasgow Caledonian University, he worked as a trainee car salesman in Glasgow, for six months before his death in April 2007. Smith was a mechanic at the garage.