At Plymouth Crown Court, a judge warned a teenager who had supplied his friends with MDMA that he would likely receive a prison sentence at a sentencing hearing in November. The teen had previously admitted purchasing MDMA from a dark web vendor and giving it to two of his friends. Both friends fatally overdosed on the MDMA later that day.
Charlie Gregory, 19, recently admitted supplying two of his friends with MDMA he had purchased for £56 on the dark web. He pleaded guilty to one count of possession of MDMA and four counts of supplying MDMA at Plymouth Crown Court during an October 2018 hearing. The charges stemmed from an event that took place almost one year ago at a Basshunter concert at a Plymouth nightclub called Pryzm. In December 2017, Gregory and seven of his friends traveled from their homes in and around Okehampton to an Airbnb rental in Plymouth after purchasing Basshunter tickets.
Gregory had originally invited only three friends to attend the concert and spend the night at the rented room. According to Prosecutor Llewellyn Sellick, one week before the event, Gregory invited three more friends to join them overnight in Plymouth. The three additional friends agreed to join the original four. Although Gregory provided MDMA pills to more than two of his friends, the case and charges focused on the two friends who had asked Gregory to purchase some MDMA for them to take as a group at the Basshunter concert. Gregory had let them know that he had access to MDMA suppliers on various dark web marketplaces, according to the prosecutor.
So, not long before the concert, Gregory found a dark web MDMA supplier capable of getting the MDMA to the teenager before the group left for Plymouth. Although several dark web MDMA dealers in the United Kingdom have been arrested and charged with causing the fatal overdoses of various customers, no vendor has been charged in connection with the Basshunter overdoses. One similar situation, though, involved two brothers who had ordered MDMA from the MDMA vendor “Stone Island1” or “Stone Island+.” Both overdosed in a Portsmouth pub. Law enforcement later arrested the father and son who had been operating the vendor account at the time. This time, though, the only person arrested was the 19-year-old who had arranged for the group to take MDMA while at the concert.
Joshua Brock, a teenager from Okehampton, Aaron Reilly, a teenager from Newton Abbot, and a third teenager the court chose not to name, all took MDMA once at the concert. In total, according to the prosecutor, four out of the seven teenagers—including Gregory—ingested the MDMA purchased on the dark web. According to the prosecutor, Gregory “did not have scales so there was no way of measuring.” The teenagers told the police that Gregory had eyeballed the MDMA powder and then wrapped each dose in a rolling paper before handing them out to his friends. And the first dose seemingly proved harmless. It was not until at least the second dose that event staff noticed that some of the teenagers appeared sickly and sweaty. Only Gregory, Brock, and Reilly dosed at first. Hours after the first dose, Gregory rolled up a second round for himself, Brock, Reilly, and the fourth teenager. According to the prosecutor, the fourth teenager vomited after swallowing the MDMA so the majority of the drug never entered his bloodstream.
Not long after the second dose, both Brock and Reilly passed out on the floor of the nightclub. Emergency personnel rushed both teenagers off to the hospital where they died from MDMA toxicity. While on MDMA and similar stimulants, dehydration and hyperthermia are two common causes of hospitalization. However, the court heard that blood tests showed the amount of MDMA ingested was “well within the range where death has been attributed to MDMA alone.”
Although Gregory has no criminal record and no history of drug use, the court heard that the deaths would likely lead to a prison sentence for the teenager. Judge Paul Darlow warned Gregory’s defense attorney that it is “important that your client understands that all options are open and custody remains a very, very real prospect in this case.” The prosecutor has asked for a three-year prison sentence. Sentencing will take place later in November.
by: C. Aliens