Australian TV journalist jailed 10 months in Singapore for drugs offences
Posted: 02 December 2008 1510 hrs

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SINGAPORE: An Australian television correspondent who said he was traumatised from covering wars and natural disasters was jailed 10 months by a Singapore court on Tuesday for drug offences.

Peter Lloyd, 42, New Delhi-based correspondent for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, pleaded guilty to all three charges.

Judge Hamidah Ibrahim sentenced Lloyd to eight months for possessing the stimulant methamphetamine and another eight months for consuming it. The sentences are to run concurrently.

He was charged with possessing 0.41 grams of the stimulant, also known as Ice.

Lloyd received an additional two months in jail for possessing drug paraphernalia stained with ketamine, an anaesthetic which is commonly used at dance parties.

Lloyd, wearing a dark suit and white open-necked shirt, smiled when he arrived for the hearing. After the verdict, he was led away, expressionless and in handcuffs, to start his sentence.

His ex-wife, Kirsty McIvor, broke down in tears and was consoled by a friend.

Lloyd, who was arrested while on holiday here on July 16, had earlier expressed remorse, according to his lawyer Hamidul Haq.

Haq argued that Lloyd was suffering from post-traumatic stress because of his work as a journalist covering wars and disasters in Asia, including the 2002 Bali bombing.

Lloyd "is not a drug abuser as such" but took methamphetamine as a way of dealing with nightmares caused by the tragedies he had covered, Haq said.

"In trying to deal with this... Ice became a form of self-medication for him. He does not do it for recreational purpose," the lawyer said.

The judge responded by calling the charges "very serious."

Singapore's attorney general last month withdrew a charge of trafficking 0.15 grams of methamphetamine against Lloyd. The offence carried a prison term of between five and 20 years behind bars and five to 15 strokes of the cane.

Singaporean sales executive Sani Saidi, 31, was sentenced in August to 10 months' jail after pleading guilty to possessing 0.15 grams of methamphetamine which he admitted having bought from Lloyd.

Journalists from Lloyd's ABC network were at court Tuesday to cover his case.

- AFP/yb