Judge's Kendal Calling drugs warning (From The Westmorland Gazette)

Judge's Kendal Calling drugs warning

3:40pm Monday 22nd March 2010 in

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A JUDGE has warned drug dealers to keep away from the Kendal Calling music festival.

Judge Peter Hughes QC said in his summing up of a case at Carlisle Crown Court that it was “common knowledge” that drugs were available at such festivals.

But he said anyone caught dealing in drugs there would almost always be sent straight to prison.

“Those who play a part in the trafficking of drugs, making them available at such festivals as Kendal Calling, must understand that the consequences of being caught will be regarded seriously by the courts,” he said.

The judge made his comments when Ryan James Kirby, 18, appeared before him for attempting to supply the class A drug ecstasy at last year’s Kendal Calling held at Lowther Park, near Shap, between July 31 and August 2.

The court heard Kirby, of College Road, Harrogate, was arrested after agreeing to sell eight white pills to an undercover policeman for £20.

The pills were initially thought to be ecstasy, but they later turned out to be a harmless substitute.

Judge Hughes told Kirby he would normally have gone to prison.

But because of his young age, his limited criminal record and the fact that the tablets were not in fact ecstasy, he said he was able to suspend the inevitable custodial sentence.

Kirby was given a nine-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, ordered to do 150 hours unpaid community work and told to pay £350 costs.

He was also put under an 8pm to 6am curfew to keep him at home every night for the next 12 weeks.