An Oban man unwittingly filmed the last moments of a friend’s life, assuming he was fooling around – and not realising that he was dying of a drug overdose.
Kevin Armour, who would have celebrated his 30th birthday this month, died on November 1, 2015.
The two people who sold him the drugs appeared at Oban Sheriff Court this week.
Carrie Robertson, 23, of MacDougall Court, Dunollie, Oban, had previously pleaded guilty to being concerned in the supply of MDMA on October 31 and November 1, 2015.
Arno Redlihs, 19, and now living in Lincoln, denied the charge – but Sheriff John Herald found him guilty of being concerned in the supply of MDMA on November 1.
Detective Constable Andrew MacDougall told the court that Armour died at the home of a friend in Oban; he had been taking MDMA, commonly known as ecstasy, with two friends, who were brothers.
Det Con MacDougall added: “Both men co-operated fully with the police after Mr Armour’s death. One of them had video of the deceased in the last moments of his life, thinking Mr Armour was having a bit of a joke – but tragically it wasn’t.”
The men named their dealer and police obtained a warrant to search Robertson’s home. They found Redlihs in bed at the property.
Robertson admitted that herbal cannabis, a piece of cannabis and snap-closure bags similar to the one in which the MDNA had been sold were hers when police officers found them in her one-bedroom flat. She also admitted owning a set of digital scales ‘to see I get what I paid for’.
Officers also found £720 in a jewellery box and £690 was found in a black box in a wardrobe.
After admitting supplying the drugs, Robertson told the police: “Do you know what will happen to me if they find out? You know the script; they can’t find out it was me.”
Robertson said in court that she had sold MDMA to the men on two occasions, on October 31 and then in the early hours of the following morning, on each occasion meeting them by a tree.
The second sale happened after repeated texts and phone calls from one of the brothers: “He was hassling me for a good few hours,” Robertson said.
She added that Redlihs had been with her on both occasions.
But Redlihs told the court he was innocent; he had only gone along on the second occasion because his girlfriend had been frightened.
He claimed: “She said she was scared because they were junkies. It was her business, it was nothing to do with me.”
He admitted carrying the drugs to the second meeting, handing them to Robertson who then took payment and put the cash in her bra.
Sheriff Herald deferred sentence on the pair until later this month.
