SENTENCING JUDGE URGES DRASTIC MEASURES ON P

A High Court judge called for "drastic" measures to combat the P
scourge as he sentenced an armed robber to 18 1/2 years in prison.

Dean James McDonald Shedden was told he must spend at least 10 of
those years behind bars.

Shedden, 34, was high on the drug when he committed five robberies in
the middle of last year, culminating in the shooting of Glenfield
Tavern assistant manager Ronald Stinson.

Prosecutor Marc Corlett told Justice Rhys Harrison in the High Court
at Auckland yesterday that Shedden robbed to get money to buy pure
methamphetamine or to pay off P-related debts.

Justice Harrison said users and society would continue to suffer the
mindless consequences of the drug until Parliament and the
pharmaceutical industry devised effective ways of ensuring that
substances used to make the drug did not enter the country. Parliament
had already reclassified methamphetamine as a class A drug, with
manufacture carrying a maximum life sentence.

That was a positive step, but the judge said that something "much more
drastic" was needed.

Citing the RSA triple killings and the murders carried out by Ese
Junior Falealii, as well as others in the court system, Mr Corlett
said that offenders who carried out armed robberies while on P were
unstable and dangerous.

Justice Harrison told Shedden he accepted that he was not an innately
violent person, but he had committed the most violent of crimes.

His criminality, the judge said, was "fuelled and driven" by his
addiction to pure methamphetamine.

Shedden was said to be using a gram of the expensive drug daily and
incurring huge debts. Combining P with the violent nature of his
crimes, he acted in a way that was "right out of control".

Justice Harrison said the evidence showed that methamphetamine led to
prolonged periods of sleeplessness, confusion, anxiety and ultimately
to "random acts of extreme and senseless violence".

Shedden, represented by Marie Dyhrberg, was found guilty of five
aggravated robberies, one aggravated burglary, discharging a firearm
with intent to cause Mr Stinson grievous bodily harm, two counts of
theft and five counts of taking a motor vehicle.

He admitted other charges of burglary, possession of burglary
instruments and unlawfully taking a car.

The jury acquitted Shedden of attempting to murder Mr
Stinson.