MARKET GARDENER CLEARED OF DRUGS CHARGES

A THREE-YEAR fight for freedom had a teary end for a former Kirup market
gardener acquitted in the District Court on drug charges yesterday.

Outside the court in Bunbury, John Taylor and his family exchanged tears,
kisses and embraces with jury members.

The jury had taken only a lunch break to decide Mr Taylor was not guilty.

Mr Taylor, 51, pleaded innocence repeatedly since being charged on January
9, 1999, with cultivating 894 cannabis plants with the intent to sell and
supply.

But persistent crown prosecution adjournments and the arrest of another man
who initially accused Mr Taylor of growing cannabis plants on a
Brookhampton property, which was not Mr Taylor's, delayed the case.

On Tuesday, Mr Taylor's lawyer, Derek Hunter, tried to have the case thrown
out.

Mr Hunter maintained outside court that the police investigation into the
cultivation of the crop, estimated to be worth $1 million, was handled poorly.

Crown prosecutor Gerry Edwards earlier argued there was a strong
circumstantial case against Mr Taylor, despite the lack of any witness or
forensic evidence linking him to the crop.

Ioannis Lymberis, who pleaded guilty to a similar charge and served a jail
term, told the court on Tuesday that Mr Taylor had never been to the crop.

Mr Lymberis had tended the crop, south-east of Donnybrook.

Mr Taylor said outside court that he never lost faith in his innocence even
though the past three years had taken him to hell and back.

The proud family man, who migrated to Australia from Yugoslavia with his
parents, brother and sister in search of a better life 33 years ago,
forgave the men he believed had set him up. He said he had been forced to
move from his dream farm in Kirup because people he once regarded as
friends were pointing accusingly at him in the street.

His children were teased at school and told that their father was a trafficker.

"I was worried people were finding out the wrong things about me and I
couldn't make any decisions for my wife and kids until the whole thing was
resolved," Mr Taylor said.

"It (waiting for the verdict) was the longest and loneliest moments of my life.

"It was the lowest you could get. I've been a good father and a good
husband and we've been through all this together. I'm just an average
hardworking bloke who doesn't drink or smoke. Now I just want to have a
smooth life and provide for my family."

Cosimo "Charlie" Dimasi, who owned the property where the cannabis crop was
found, is expected to face the District Court in Perth on February 4.