Margot Laughton was arrested
on Thursday, 26 February 2004 by plain
clothes Drug Squad police officers at her home in Coconut Grove in
Darwin. They charged her with 3 offences: 1. Possess a dangerous drug
(cannabis) 2. Unlawfully supply cannabis to another 3. Receive
property—commission of offence.
She was put back into Berrimah Prison, Darwin, and has now been back
there for over 2 months, in remand.
At an appearance in Darwin Magistrates Court on Friday, 30 April ,
Magistrate Jenny Blokland set a date for Margot’s trial in the NT
Supreme Court. A Supreme Court appeal, run by Legal Aid, against her
previous sentence of 2 years suspended after 12 months, for another
cannabis trafficking bust, succeeded. She had served 4 ½ months of that
sentence but had been released on bail on 2 January to attend a family
funeral.
The appeal was heard but it took ages for Justice Sally Thomas to hand
down her decision. It was a stressful time for Margot, left in limbo
not knowing whether she’d have to go back and serve the other 7½
months.
Margot has been a target of the NT Govt.’s Drug house
legislation for a while now. She was the first person to have one of
the infamous green Drug House signs put up on the front of her place,
and was evicted from her Territory Housing unit as a result. Northern
Territory News journalist (sic) Edith Bevin won Margot’s trust with the
promise to find her accommodation, but never followed through with
that. Instead, an unflattering photo of Margot ended up in the paper
alongside Bevin’s sensationalist drivel. Bevin tagged her the ‘gunja
granny.’
The NT Police have put a lot of effort into harassing Margot. This
latest bust was a case of entrapment, which in many places is illegal
for the police to use.
They used a bloke called Dave Hocking, who apparently had Assault
charges against him in South Australia, to pressure Margot to go and
score cannabis. The first day he wanted a $50 bag for himself, and when
Margot wouldn’t do it for him he went away swearing at her. This was at
7 in the morning. The next day he came back with a hard luck story
about a mate who wanted $1000 worth of gunja desperately but lived in
Katherine and couldn’t find any.
This guy was supposedly dying of an incurable disease. By the time Dave
came around the next day the story had got worse. The guy’s wife had
gone and left him with their 2 year old child, and the day after that
he was getting suicidal. Margot met this guy when he turned up in
person, and noticed that he didn’t look too bad for a dying man.
However, she didn’t want to pry into his situation and thought maybe he
was in remission.
The ‘dying man’ was in actual fact an undercover cop by the name of
Della Costa. Margot was suspicious and asked him whether he was a
‘narc.’ To which he responded, “If you think that, I can walk away…”
But she called him back.
Finally she gave in to the pressure. Friends and family tried hard to
dissuade her. She responded, “It’s a matter of life and death. If I
don’t do it I won’t be able to sleep. I won’t be able to live with
myself.” She didn’t want to risk having his suicide on her conscience.
Margot’s like that. She’s a generous, kind-hearted person. If there’s
someone in desperate need asking for help she can’t say no. She often
helps people out, and anyone who knows her will tell you this.
The police took advantage of her gentle nature. Her brother tried to
talk her out of it, “But you’re not doing this any more, Sis…” “No,
it’s just a one-off,” she replied. Margot didn’t stand to gain anything
for herself from this deal, she was just doing someone a favour.
The deal was done in a car in the carpark outside Margot’s block of
units. $1050 for 70.6 grams. Suddenly plainclothes drug squad cops
appeared from nowhere and swarmed into the unit with a search warrant.
They turned the bedroom upside down looking for drugs but found
nothing. It transpired in court that Margot’s conversations with
Hocking and Della Costa had been taped and that the tapes and
transcripts were to be used as evidence by the prosecution. It’s not
looking good for Margot.
Prosecution is also using Drug Squad statements and the search warrant
as evidence. The gunja was a traffickable amount. The tapes were not in
court on 30 April, but they were with the transcript lady and would be
produced. There are photos too. Peter Bravos, Det. Della Costa, Michael
Sharkey and Barnett were some of the police involved in the operation.
I tried to take down the names of all the police involved but there
were too many. The $1050 used to buy the cannabis was located during
the raid by Sgt. Jorgensen.
Later Sharkey and another officer re-examined the money and found it
was the same notes. They had noted the serial numbers before the deal.
The defendant had possessed the cannabis in clipseal bags and photos
were taken of these. Hocking has since returned to Qld and the police
need to follow up his whereabouts.
Magistrate Blokland found a prima facie case on all 3 counts and
the matter will proceed as a hand-up committal to the Supreme Court.
Margot declined to make a statement when invited to by Blokland. She is
pleading guilty and did not apply for bail—she wants to serve as much
of the time as possible before she gets sentenced. The matter was been
set down for 10am on Monday 31 May 2004 at the Supreme Court in Darwin
and has been adjourned again until the 26th July at 10am.
Come
along to
support Margot.
This article has
also appeared on Darwin
Independent Media and in Issue 7 of the Territory Users Forum
Newsletter - GoodsTUFf.
