Aussie DJ on trial in Bali

AN Australian music DJ facing drugs charges in Bali has apologised for using cocaine but says it makes him feel relaxed, comfortable and less anxious.

Nick Taylor, 41, from Bangalow in NSW, told a court of three judges yesterday he was addicted to the drug.

His girlfriend told the court he had been using cocaine for five years, for "insecurity, nerves" and "shaking" caused by Parkinson's disease.

And a Bali doctor testified that Taylor had told him he needed cocaine to help his job as a DJ and that without the drug he lacked confidence. It was an all too familiar scene with an equally familiar cast – an Australian in Denpasar District Court, caught in Bali with drugs.

His lawyer is Erwin Siregar, the same lawyer representing Schapelle Corby, some members of the Bali Nine and Ronald Ramsay, the drug addict brother of millionaire British TV chef Gordon Ramsay, whose case was postponed yesterday.

And the local doctor, psychiatrist Denny Thong, who testified in Taylor's trial yesterday that he was an addict, is the same doctor who testified in Ronnie Ramsay's trial, the case of Australian model Michelle Leslie caught with ecstasy and a host of other foreigners arrested on the island.

Taylor was arrested on June 10 this year along with an Italian and Belgian man after police, acting on a tip-off that a drug party was under way, raided a private villa in Kerobokan.

He faces three separate charges, the most serious of which is drug possession, which carries a maximum 10-year jail term.

Taylor testified that he had been given the drug during a stint of DJ work at the popular Double Six club in Seminyak but had not known it was cocaine until later when he went home and used some before going to the villa where he was arrested.

Asked if he felt sorry, Taylor replied: "Yes, very much."

His girlfriend, with whom he has lived for 10 years, Brigitte Hedwig Kaelin, testified on his behalf that Taylor had been seeing a doctor in Australia for anxiety and drug problems, mostly the use of "uppers, cocaine".

Prosecutors will deliver their sentence demand in one week.

Newshawk: http://www.napnt.org/
Pubdate: Tues, 7 Aug 2007
Source: couriermail.com.au (Australia- Web)
Reporter: Cindy Wockner and Komag Suriadi
Website: http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/