Defqon drug accused ‘didn’t know for sure’ what he had stuffed down his pants, court told
A MAN allegedly caught with drugs in his underwear at a Sydney music festival where two revellers fatally overdosed over the weekend claims he had “a fair idea” of what he’d stuffed down his pants but “didn’t know for sure”.
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A MAN allegedly caught with drugs in his underwear at a Sydney music festival where two revellers fatally overdosed over the weekend claims he didn’t know what he’d stuffed down his pants.
Police allegedly caught Douglas George Wood with 243g of MDMA at the Defqon. 1 event in Penrith on Saturday where two partygoers died from heart attacks and a dozen more were hospitalised from suspected overdoses.
The 33-year-old was denied bail in Penrith Local Court on Monday where he appeared via audio visual link from Amber Laurel prison rubbing his eyes and downcast.
Police allege the Mount Pritchard man was given a grey plastic bag by an “Asian male” who promised to “fix him up” once inside the hard trance concert at Sydney International Regatta Centre, the court heard.
Defence lawyer Eli Srour said his client would be fighting the charges and added while Wood had a “fair idea” of what he was carrying, he didn’t know for sure.
“Wilful blindness is not helpful,” Magistrate Daphne Kok replied.
Edensor Park man Joseph Pham, 23, and a 21-year-old Victorian woman collapsed at the rave and died.
“There’s no link between the accused and the people who died at the festival,” Mr Srour said.
But Magistrate Kok said Wood may have been connected to bigger players who were supplying “vastly more amounts of that stuff”.
“They may have been using people like him to courier the stuff onsite,” she said.
Wood’s brother supported him in court and offered a $3,000 surety but later flipped the bird at reporters as he left court after it was rejected.
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Mr Srour said officers found no drug paraphernalia like scales, resealable bags or large sums of money when they arrested Wood and there were no incriminating text messages found on his mobile phone.
But police prosecutor Sergeant Dan Berea said Wood was reluctant to assist police and refused to unlock his phone despite receiving “numerous phone calls”.
The father-of-three has a criminal record that “doesn’t assist” him and has breached bail before, Mr Srour conceded.
Wood supports his children, his paralysed sister and his pacemaker-wearing mother who are “not well off” and may not face a trial for up to two years, the lawyer said.
Wood’s matter will next be heard at Penrith Local Court on November 12.
Three people, including a 19-year-old man, are critically ill in hospital while 700 of the 30,000 attendees were treated by medical staff on Saturday, police say.
It brings the dance music festival’s drug overdose death toll to four in five years and a shocked Premier Gladys Berejiklian has vowed to shut it down.
Police conducted 355 drug searches on Saturday night and found 69 people in possession, including two 17-year-old girls who were attempting to smuggle 120 capsules into the event inside their bodies.
They were among 10 people charged with drug supply including a 21-year-old Dee Why woman, and two 20-year-old women from St Johns Park and Oran Park.
A 23-year-old Tahmoor man and a 26-year-old Campbelltown man were charged with the same offences.