Stab victim found with drugs in his buttocks was not dealing, jury finds

Peter Quinn, 28, told jurors at Oxford Crown Court he’d picked up the clingfilm-wrapped parcel after it was dropped by an opponent in the Bournemouth beach fight in which he was stabbed in the chest.

He said he’d stashed the drugs in between his buttocks ‘for safety’. The package, which was discovered when surgeons turned him over on the operating table, contained a total of 36 wraps of heroin and crack cocaine worth more than £350 on the street.

After almost four hours of deliberations, jurors acquitted Quinn of possession of class A drugs with intent to supply them. They found him guilty on the direction of Judge Michael Gledhill QC of simple possession of the drugs.

During the two-day trial, the jury heard part-time labourer Quinn had travelled down to Bournemouth from Abingdon on July 6, 2019, to party and meet girls.

They arrived at the south coast at around lunchtime, bought a bottle of Grey Goose vodka and headed to the beach.

At around sunset, they exchanged words with a group of six men, whom he described as ‘travellers’, before going back to the beach for another drink.

They were down at the beach for around 45 minutes and when they returned found the other group blocking their path, jurors were told.

A fight ensued in which Quinn’s two friends grabbed wheelie bins to defend themselves. He said he saw a member of the other group drop a parcel of what he thought might be cocaine or cannabis. He picked it up and put it in between his buttocks to keep the item 'safe'

He felt a pain in his side but did not immediately realise he had been stabbed. The group of six fled as Quinn called the ambulance service then passed out. He was taken to hospital by paramedics after 3.45am on July 7.

Quinn woke up in Poole hospital, saying he’d ‘died twice’ on the operating table.

File image of Poole Hospital, where Quinn was taken for treatment Picture: NQ

Questioned by his barrister, Julian Lynch, the defendant denied being in Bournemouth dealing drugs or that the crack or heroin between his buttocks had been 'for sale'.

The drug wrappings were not checked for DNA or fingerprints.

Closing the defence case on Wednesday, Mr Lynch told the jury they needed to be sure of his client’s guilt before they could convict him.

“Even if you thought Mr Quinn’s account was less likely than the prosecution’s, even if you thought it was unlikely that would still be short of being sure the prosecution’s account was true,” he said.

“The evidence simply isn’t there, partly because it was not collected.”

File image of Bournemouth Beach Picture: RICHARD CREASE

Jailing him for six months for simple possession of the class A drugs, Judge Gledhill said Quinn was looking much better than when he was sentenced in June 2021 for assault. He urged him to make use of the extra time he’d serve in prison and ‘put this dreadful period of offending behind you’.

The six month sentence will be served once he completes an existing term imposed in June for assault, criminal damage and breaching a restraining order. Quinn, of Caldecott Road, Abingdon, has 37 convictions for 65 offences, including for dealing cannabis in 2017 and possession of class A drugs.

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