Ice ‘scourge’ spreading through country communities: judge

QUEENSLAND’S ice ‘scourge’ was spreading through regional communities, a District Court judge said in Gympie yesterday.

HAVOC: A Gympie District Court judge yesterday described the jail sentence he imposed on Michael Carswell Coyne as a consequence of the "havoc" caused by ice, as it spreads through Queensland country communities.

QUEENSLAND’S ice epidemic was the focus of the jail sentence imposed on a young Gympie man in Gympie District Court yesterday.

Judge Glen Cash said the proliferation of drug rehabilitation service in regional towns was “a reflection of ice spreading through country communities”.

Judge Cash spoke of the “havoc” caused by ice as he sentenced young Gympie man Michael Carswell Coyne.

And he warned Coyne the sentence was not the one Coyne might have been hoping for.

He said he could could understand why Coyne’s legal representative had sought a suspended jail sentence for his drug supply, tainted property and police evasion offences.

But he wanted Coyne, 22, to understand why this was not going to happen.

Coyne had a “raging drug habit” and had breached parole last year, after being jailed for 18 months in 2018.

The judge said some time in custody and parole with strict drug supervision might help him and the community more than the unsupervised immediate release which would follow any suspended sentence.

Coyne had pleaded guilty to seven charges of supplying dangerous drugs between July 22, 2018 and April 22 last year, with sale discussions found in messages on a mobile phone,

Photographs in the phone provided police with evidence of stolen property which Coyne had received between April 20 and 23 last year.

Coyne also pleaded guilty to possession of Valium without prescription and failing to stop his car for police when required, on April 14 last year.

The judge said Coyne had accumulated a substantial criminal record in only three years, most of them “unsurprisingly” drug offences with “dishonesty offences among them”.

Noting that Coyne’s current jail sentence was due to expire on March 21, he jailed Coyne for 18 months for the new offences and allowed parole eligibility from March 21.

Originally published as Ice ‘scourge’ spreading through country communities: judge