Cree Aiden Dryden sentenced in Rockhampton District Court for supplying drugs

A young man has been told to ‘grow up’ and act his age after he was busted supplying drugs just days after being sentenced for the same thing. Here’s what happened in court.

He had only been sentenced in court a few days prior, but that didn’t stop a young man’s ways when police busted him at a “pinger party”.

Cree Aiden Dryden, 23, pleaded guilty in Rockhampton Supreme Court to 14 counts of drug supplying, one count of possessing a dangerous drug and possessing an item used in connection with the supply of a dangerous drug.

The court heard Dryden, who was 21 at the time of the offence, was at a Rockhampton home with nine other people when police raided the property in October 2020.

The property was not Dryden’s home, but he was present during the search.

During the search Dryden was concealing a plastic bag in his hand, which fell onto the ground when he sat down.

In the plastic bag were a number of MDMA capsules, which contained 0.546g of pure MDMA.

On the bag was a note which said “54 caps – 52x25 = $1350, 53x30 = $1620, $270 to work with”, demonstrating his intent to sell the tablets.

During the search Dryden’s phone was seized and he allowed officers to look through messages.

The messages showed Dryden had supplied drugs 14 times to 10 different customers over a 10 month period.

On five occasions he supplied the MDMA, on another five occasions he supplied marijuana and the other four supplies were unspecified.

The phone also contained photos of Dryden with capsules in his mouth, with marijuana plants and of tablets.

Judge Jeff Clarke described the variety of drugs as “a smorgasbord”.

The court heard Dryden had only been sentenced in the Rockhampton District Court days earlier for supplying drugs after he was intercepted by police at the Giddy Goat.

On that day he received a community service order.

Some of the messages on the phone, which were seen during the raid, showed Dryden had supplied the drugs while on bail and also while he was on the community service order.

A court report tendered said Dryden was suitable for further community based orders.

The prosecution submitted an 18 month sentence wholly suspended for two years was within range.

Dryden’s barrister Maree Willey told the court her client had not committed any further drug offending since the raid and had held employment since September last year.

She said she was instructed Dryden had used MDMA for two years, primarily on weekends.

Ms Willey said Dryden had made a number of changes in his life since.

Judge Jeff Clarke took into account Dryden’s plea of guilty and that it came at an early opportunity.

Judge Clarke said Dryden’s offending was aggravated by the fact they happened while he was on bail and on a community based order.

He told Dryden he had “quite simply snubbed” everything he was told about drugs last time he appeared in court.

“What you are doing is creating considerable harm to the community, you might think it’s pretty cool and easy to make some money selling drugs, but as her honour (Judge Leanne Clare) said to you, it didn’t seem to get through to you last time, the experience of the court is young people have taken just one tablet and died,” he said.

“I noted that her honour Judge Clare was pretty unimpressed with your personal appearance in court, I noticed the people who wrote your court report were pretty unimpressed with your attitude and I must say I’m getting the same vibe myself.

“It might be high time for you to grow up and act your age.”

Dryden was sentenced to 18 months imprisonment which was wholly suspended for an operational period of two years and six months.