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Man found with range of drugs in Lurgan home disputes facts in court despite guilty plea

Craigavon Courthouse

A man has been sentenced to two months in prison following the discovery of a range of drugs, including Class A.

Petras Sakavicius, of Union Street, Lurgan appeared before Craigavon Magistrates’ Court, with the assistance of a Lithuanian interpreter, via video-link from Magilligan, charged with one count of possession of Class A drugs and three counts of possessing Class B drugs.

The 54-year-old pleaded guilty to all four charges.

The prosecution detailed how police had attended a property on Union Street in Lurgan around midnight on October 21 of last year.

There were “girls in the property”, and police had reason to suspect that the defendant had been in possession of controlled drugs.

The drugs that were found in the property were: MDMA, which is a Class A controlled drug, and also cannabis, methylmethcathinone and chloromethcathinon, which are Class B controlled drugs.

In response to the facts the defendant said: “Police did the search without any permission in my house. Police is doing whatever they want.”

The court was told that at interview, the defendant had admitted possession of the Class A and Class B drugs. Sakavicius responded: “What are you talking about? It didn’t happen like that.”

The defendant’s defence counsel, Aaron Thompson BL said: “His behaviour on the link is somewhat surprising to me” as Sakavicius had “indicated firmly” that he wanted to plead guilty to the charges.

Furthermore, Thompson noted that his client had been sentenced to imprisonment previously, with a release date set for October 4, and that they desired to get this matter dealt with as soon as possible.

“I don’t know why he is concerned about the facts”, Mr Thompson added.

Sakavicius added: “I do agree that there were drugs but they’re not A group or B group.”

District Judge Bernie Kelly imposed a period of two months custody in respect of each charge, to run concurrently with each other.

Judge Kelly also made a destruction order for the drugs and any related paraphernalia.

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