Rabbits Eat Lettuce festival deaths referenced in ecstasy court case
A Queensland magistrate has unleashed a tirade after the latest apparent drug deaths at a music festival — and a pill popper was on the receiving end.
Crime & Justice
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A tough-love magistrate has referenced the presumed drug-related deaths of two Queenslanders at a music festival at the weekend in slamming an ecstasy user, telling him to “grow up or die”.
Magistrate Barbara Tynan this morning warned unemployed ecstasy-taker Ryan Allen Murray, 24, he could die if he kept “putting poison” in his body.
Drugs investigation after death of young Sunshine Coast couple at Rabbits Eat Lettuce Festival
Ms Tynan, who spent 12 years serving on the drug court bench before retiring in 2010 then returning to work a few years ago, today convicted Murray of possession of ecstasy as well as six breaches of bail and one count of contravening a community service order.
“Is he seeking to kill himself?” Ms Tynan asked Murray’s duty lawyer.
“I hope not, your honour,” the lawyer replied.
“He is walking around with drugs in his pocket,” Ms Tynan said.
“Two kids are dead at a music festival over the weekend, they went to bed (and) they just didn’t wake up the next morning.
“It’s not nice for their families, a 20-year-old girl who doesn’t come home after a weekend away.
“These two kids on the weekend, (just) dead. They didn’t come out of their tent so people checked on them and they were dead.”
Ms Tynan told Murray he was taking terrible risks with his life.
“Do you have a death wish?” she asked him.
“No, I don’t have a death wish,” Murray replied. “I have learned my lesson.”
Ms Tynan continued: “What I can never quite understand is I ask people, ‘Where did you get it?’ and it’s usually from ‘some bloke in a pub’, and I say, ‘Did you know him?’ and they say, ‘No.’
“So you bought something from some bloke in a pub, some bloke you didn’t know and whatever it is you bought, you don’t know what is in it, so you are going to put it in your system?
“So if I give you a bottle of something right now, and you don’t know what is in it, and I say, ‘Here you are, drink this,’ would it make you think?
“Obviously you don’t see because you are walking around with this stuff in your back pocket and you are putting it into your mouth because you don’t think, you don’t know what it is, it could be pure and simple Rat-Sack in a little capsule.
“You haven’t a clue what is in it, it could be sheer out-and-out poison.
“(It’s) unbelievable really that you are so senseless about this, that you don’t think that you could be putting pure and simple poison into your body.
“It is poison anyway, but some poisons are more lethal than others, that is what it comes down to.
“You are 24 years old, Mr Murray, it is time to grow up.
“On one side, grow up or die, because that is the position you are putting yourself in.
“Or grow up and end up in jail, that is the alternative.”
Ms Tynan told Murray it was time to clean up his act.
Murray was convicted but not further punished for the charges. He had already served 43 days in custody.
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