NO SATISFACTION: JAGGER'S ACCOUNT OF BEING FRAMED IN DRUG RAID REVEALED IN
DPP FILES

I went down to the Chelsea drugstore To get your prescription filled, [You
Can't Always Get What You Want, Rolling Stones, 1969]

Sir Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones may now be a group of ageing
establishment roues whose UKP55m sales made them the UK's highest earning
music stars last year. But newly released files from the director of public
prosecutions show that Jagger once firmly believed that he had been framed
by a police officer during a drug raid who then demanded a UKP1,000 bribe
to get him off the charges.

The controversy around the May 1969 police raid, led by the head of the
Chelsea drug squad, the curiously named Detective Sergeant Robin Constable,
on Jagger's Cheyne Walk home was to prove typical of its time. Only a few
years later senior detectives of Scotland Yard's drug squad under Detective
Sergeant "Nobby" Pilcher found themselves on trial at the Old Bailey for
just such corrupt practices.

The DPP file released this month at the National Archives shows that
Jagger's allegations were taken more seriously than most because his came
with the backing of a future Conservative attorney general, Michael Havers,
and the Labour MP, Tom Driberg. But a full internal Scotland Yard inquiry
was only launched after the Australian police reported that Jagger's
partner, the actress Marianne Faithfull, had told them she "hated coppers"
because the couple had been framed on trumped-up charges by the London
police. Faithfull had been admitted to a Sydney hospital for a drug
overdose while she had been in Australia with Jagger where she was supposed
to co-star with him in Tony Richardson's film, Ned Kelly.

The DPP file says that Mr Constable decided to raid Jagger's Chelsea home
at 48, Cheyne Walk in May 1969 after he was phoned by "an informant" who
told him there was cannabis in the house. The informant also suggested they
turn up at 8pm when Jagger would be leaving to go to a recording session.

Mr Constable told the Scotland Yard inquiry carried out by Detective
Sergeant "Jock" Wilson, a future assistant commissioner, that he waited
until Jagger got into his car before showing the warrant. He claimed the
Stones lead singer shouted through an open [basement] kitchen window:
"Marianne, Marianne, don't open the door. It's the police. They're after
the weed."

Faithfull says she saw five or six people in plain clothes surround Jagger:
"I never saw anyone shout but saw someone's hand over Mick's mouth. I
assumed that he was being attacked by thugs and ran from the kitchen
upstairs to the front door which I opened. At this Mick said: 'Shut the
door, you silly twit, it's the police."

The officers went into the house and claimed to find some cannabis in a
white Cartier box on a table in the sitting room and a large lump of
hashish in a desk drawer in a room on the first floor. Mr Constable claimed
that Faithfull later asked Jagger: "Have they found it?" and he replied:
"Yes, don't worry. It's going to be all right." But Jagger strongly denied
this version of events: "I didn't say anything like 'Marianne, it's the
law, they're after the weed'. I couldn't have done that because someone had
their hand over my mouth. I simply wouldn't have shouted that or used the
word 'weed'. It is an almost archaic expression which is never used. I had
no knowledge there was any cannabis in the house."

He said that when Mr Constable had asked where the acid was, he had picked
up the Cartier box and had pulled out a folded piece of white paper, opened
it and said: "Ah, we won't have to look much further." Jagger said he saw
the white paper contained some white powder and said: "You bastard, you've
planted me with heroin."

A few minutes later he claimed Mr Constable had told him not to worry,
something could be sorted out: 'Well, you plead not guilty and she pleads
guilty.' I was taken aback. He said: 'How much is it worth to you?' I
didn't reply but merely shrugged my shoulders. He said, 'Come on, how much
is it worth to you?' He seemed to want me to name a figure, but I did not
want to.

"The conversation was being held in an undertone but not a whisper. He
twice asked me how much it was worth. He then said: 'A thousand.' but I
never replied. 'You can have the money back if it doesn't work. Don't tell
anybody, your brief, or even Marianne, all right?' I said: 'OK'. No other
person heard the conversation."

He claimed when they had all arrived at Chelsea police station the officer
had also warned him that if he got a conviction he would find it difficult
to go the United States again. On the way home from the police station,
Jagger said to Faithfull: "You saw that big piece of hash, didn't you? Are
you sure it wasn't yours?" She said she was sure. "We've been planted,
haven't we?" said Mick. That night he phoned Michael Havers, who had been
his counsel in his first big drug case in 1967, at 2.30am to ask his advice.

Jagger also claimed the "big piece" had mysteriously shrunk in size between
the night of the raid and the subsequent appearance at Marlborough Street
magistrates' court. He claimed that Mr Constable came up to him at the
court and asked him if he had noticed it was no longer a quarter-pound
piece. Jagger asked him who had put it there and the policeman had
responded: 'To know that will cost you a big drink.'

When the Yard inquiry interviewed Mr Constable he strenously denied the
allegations, saying he had been warned "that a firm calling itself
'Release' was perturbed at the number of arrests for drug offences that I
was responsible for in the Chelsea area and that they were going to 'set me
up' in some way to curtail my activities."

In fact Release, the drug advice charity that is still going strong, later
that year published a report documenting two years worth of drug cases in
which the police had planted drugs or demanded bribes. Scotland Yard
threatened to raid any bookshop that stocked it.

The final court case was delayed while Jagger and Faithfull were in
Australia to film Ned Kelly, but when they got back Jagger was fined UKP200
for possessing cannabis and made to pay 50 guineas [UKP52.50] costs. The
charges against Faithfull were dismissed.

The DPP studied the Scotland Yard report, noted that Michael Havers had
given a statement in support of Jagger but decided it came down to his word
against Mr Constable's and decided there was insufficient evidence to
prosecute the policeman for corruption.