GUILTY PLEA AFTER DRUG DEATH

When the alcohol ran out, Brian Paul Chamberlain offered his neighbor
a fatal chaser half a cup of methadone.

Chamberlain, 39, of Klemzig, yesterday pleaded guilty in the District
Court to one count of supplying methadone.

The court heard Chamberlain had been binge drinking and smoking
cannabis on February 10 last year when he offered his neighbor some of
the methadone he had been holding for more than a year for an
acquaintance.

Chamberlain's lawyer, Mr Stephen Ey, said the victim was "looking for
something else to give him a buzz".

"On the spur of the moment (Chamberlain) suggested he could have some
of this liquid," he said.

Later that morning Chamberlain found the man "looking very poorly" and
immediately rang an ambulance.

Despite Chamberlain's frantic efforts, including rousing his neighbor
from his stupor by dragging him into a shower, the man died from the
methadone overdose.

In his sentencing remarks, Judge Hume said he understood Chamberlain
was not a part of the "drug scene" and was not dealing
commercially.

He had been given the methadone for safe keeping from an acquaintance
18 months before the offence, Judge Hume said.

"(The victim's) death is a demonstration of the danger of the use of
drugs such as opiates and methadone," he said.

"I am sure that you now realise the dreadful consequences which your
keeping it have brought."

Judge Hume sentenced Chamberlain to 18 months in prison, with a
12-month non-parole period.

This was suspended on his entering into a $1000, 18-month good
behavior bond.