Georgina Bartter’s best friend Rebecca Hannibal cries at conviction over ecstasy death
REBECCA Hannibal was sentenced to a 12-month good behaviour bond for supplying ecstasy to her best friend Georgina Bartter who died after taking the drug at a dance festival.
GEORGINA Bartter told her close friend shortly before buying the ecstasy pills that would end her life “I’m not taking three at Harbourlife. I’ll die.”
The state’s chief Magistrate Graeme Henson said “and so she did”, noting the tragedy of the 19-year-old’s death as he sentenced her close friend Rebecca Hannibal, who pleaded guilty to supplying the drug, to a 12-month good behaviour bond.
Judge Henson said “the real evil is not present in this courtroom” and slammed the conduct of “organised criminals” who distribute the drug on to “low-level” drug dealers.
Ms Hannibal, a 19-year-old university student from Sydney’s North Shore, cried after Judge Henson imposed a conviction upon her in the Downing Centre Local Court.
Georgina died last November after taking two tablets at the music festival.
After suffering a reaction, she died at St Vincent’s Hospital from multiple organ failure.
The court heard a series of text messages exchanged between the two close friends and the dealer Matthew Forti, including one where Ms Bartter tragically said “I’m not taking three (pills) at Harbourlife, I’d die.”
Forti has pleaded guilty to four charges and will be sentenced in August.
Judge Henson said although Hannibal will “have to live with the actions and scars for the rest of her life”, drug supplying is “a crime and has to be treated as such”.
“No one can stand in the shoes of the Bartter family and truly understand the devastation wrought by the events of the 7th November 2014,” Judge Henson said in his remarks.
“I extend my sincere sympathies to the Bartter family and their extended family. It is impossible to comprehend the depth of their despair.
“Grief is the most personal of emotions.
“Words from a stranger, no matter how sincerely offered, are cold comfort to the hollowness that follows the senseless loss of a life in the full flower of youth and the life-changing consequences that flow from what, sadly, is an altogether too common event in our community — young people exploring the uncontrolled world of drug taking without regard for what may go wrong. “
The court heard Ms Hannibal now lives interstate, partly to escape the attention of the court case and the fallout from her close friend’s death.
She may now elect to appeal the conviction to the District Court.
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