Disabled man died from ecstasy

[bongme]

hi

Wednesday, 6 March, 2002

A Down syndrome sufferer died after he took ecstasy which his younger brother was hiding for a friend, a court has heard.

James Tohill watched his younger brother, Conor, hide eight pills for his 18-year-old friend Michael Joseph Bittles, Belfast Crown Court heard on Wednesday.

Bittles, from Granville Place, Belfast, was given 21 months detention for possessing the ecstasy tablets and having them with intent to supply them last March.

The court heard Bittles and his friend went to a bar last March, leaving James who went back to the bedroom and swallowed at least one and possibly more of the class A drug.

'Make money'

Prosecuting lawyer Russell Connell said later that evening, his sister found him "in a very agitated state and suffering from hallucinations".

He was given a glass of water, but by the following morning his condition had worsened. He was rushed to the City Hospital where James died a week later, the court heard.

Later, Bittles gave himself up to police after his friend said that James may have taken the ecstasy he had been hiding.

During police interview, Bittles claimed he had bought the pills from a man and that he intended to sell some of them to "make some money".

Defence lawyer Barry Gibson said that Bittles felt "responsible for the death of James Tohill and he has been finding it hard to cope with his own personal remorse for his actions."

Mr Gibson said that since the tragedy, Bittles had changed his "attitude to drugs" in that he has stopped abusing drugs and has also stopped his "low-level dealing".

Judge Tom Burgess describing the case as a "tragedy" not only for the Tohill family but for Bittles himself.

Guilty plea

He said it was not the crown case that Bittles had supplied, or intended to supply, the drugs to the victim.

The judge said neither he, nor the courts, would "tolerate involvement in the cynical drugs trade" which he also described as a "trade in misery".

He added that not only was it the courts duty to punish Bittles but also to send out "the clear message" that trading or involvement in drugs "simply will not be tolerated".

Bittles, who pleaded guilty to possession and to possession with the intent to supply the class A drugs, was sent to the young offenders centre for 21 months

Bongme