An Easter Ross man has been jailed for two years for having drugs that became part of a fatal cocktail taken by an Inverness hairdresser.
Ewan Kerr, 30, of Rosedale Cottage, Barbaraville, admitted possessing methadone and diazepam with intent to supply to Aileen McClelland, 20, between July 19 and 21, 2008 at Mansfield Estate, Tain, and 38 High Street, Invergordon.
Fiscal Roderick Urquhart told Tain Sheriff Court yesterday that Kerr and Miss McClelland had been friends for many years but Kerr became worried when he found out she was using heroin and decided to attempt to get her off drugs.
Kerr met up with Miss McClelland, who was living c/o the Royal Hotel, Dingwall, on July 19, and they went to a party in Mansfield Estate.
The fiscal said: “There he bought two bottles of methadone and 20 diazepam tablets, which he explained he had wanted to use to wean her off heroin. During the party she had consumed cocaine.”
The couple returned to High Street, Invergordon, where Kerr was staying at the time.
He placed the bottles and tablets on a shelf in the kitchen and they went to bed.
The following day Kerr was drinking and he and Miss McClelland went to bed around 4am.
At 4pm he woke to find Miss McClelland dead.
When police officers arrived at the house around 5pm they realised she had been dead for some time.
It was then that Kerr realised the bottles of methadone had been opened and showed them to police.
When interviewed he denied supplying them to her and told them he had bought them with the intention of helping her. She had taken them without his consent or knowledge, he said.
Mr Urquhart said: “He set out with the intention to get her off heroin and the plan went disastrously wrong as a result of his actions.”
Defence solicitor David Hingston said: “He bought the drugs entirely for her benefit. It was his intention to take her to his parent’s home in the middle of nowhere and his motive was entirely altruistic to help the lassie.
“He was aware of methadone as a substitute for heroin and it was his intention to give her a little at a time as she came off it.
“He did not give her the drugs and was devastated she had taken them.”
Mr Hingston, who said his client had been suicidal, added: “It has taken a long time for him to accept he did not kill her. It was her own choice to take the quantity she did.”
Sheriff David Sutherland said: “This is truly tragic and has resulted in the death of a young lady. It is a tragic case but what I have to look at is the supply of a Class A drug to someone else.”