SHOOTING GALLERY PASTOR MAY FACE JAIL

A Kings Cross clergyman faces a possible jail term for operating a
heroin shooting gallery, just as the NSW Government gives the go-ahead
to Australia's first legal injecting room.

The Rev Ray Richmond will be summonsed to appear in Downing Centre
Local Court on August 24 on a charge of aiding and abetting the
self-administration of a prohibited drug.

Police allege the 61-year-old Uniting Church pastor assisted two men,
named in court documents, to inject heroin in the Wayside Chapel on
May 12.

The offence, under Section 19 of the Drug Misuse and Trafficking Act,
carries a maximum penalty of a $2,000 fine or two years' jail, or both.

Richmond has not yet been served with the summons and did not wish to
discuss the matter last night. "I cannot comment one way or the
other," he said.

It is understood Kings Cross detectives, who lodged the matter in
court on July 21, tried to serve the summons last week but Richmond
was not at the chapel. The Director of Public Prosecutions was not
consulted before the information was filed.

The Wayside Chapel's so-called "Tolerance Room" was Australia's first
church-run shooting gallery when it opened amid controversy on May
3.

Two days later six police led by Kings Cross patrol commander
Superintendent Bob Myatt spent half an hour in the room taking notes
and videotaping after being invited inside.

The gallery closed on May 13 after sustained political pressure. The
previous day police had raided the Hughes Street premises, charging
one man with possessing a prohibited drug and issuing two others with
court attendance notices to face charges of self-administration.

At the time Richmond said the closure was in "deference to calm and
rational debate" at the NSW Drug Summit, which was to begin the next
week. "Our next action will be on the basis of an assessment of the
final communique at the end of the summit," Richmond said of the
injecting room's future.

Several hours after the room was closed a man in his mid-30s collapsed
in a toilet cubicle at the chapel and died of a heroin overdose.

The Wayside Chapel shooting gallery had the support of the Rev Tom
Henderson-Brooks, of the Anglican Church of St John, Darlinghurst, and
Father Steve Sinn of St Canice's Catholic Church, Elizabeth Bay.

Drug law reform activist Dr Alex Wodak and Kings Cross GP Dr Raymond
Seidler were also founding members, as was Mr Tony Trimingham, whose
son Damien died of an overdose.

The shooting gallery was to operate two hours a day, three days a
week, for a month-long trial. All users had to be over 18, to have
used heroin before and to have not shot up within the previous hour. A
nurse and social worker attended visitors and tables were sprayed and
cleaned before and after use.

The Prime Minister said yesterday that he regretted the decision by
the Carr Government to establish a legal heroin injecting room, but he
would not attempt to stop it. "I share the view that a number have
expressed that it does send the wrong signal," Mr Howard said.