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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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UK: Cannabis grower cleared by court
Rugby Advertiser
Thursday 25 Mar 2004 A Rugby man who was repeatedly arrested for growing cannabis plants has been dramatically cleared of all the charges. Roderick Cotton, 42, had denied a number of charges including assaulting police officers. Since March last year there have been several weeks of legal argument in the case, during which Cotton defended himself and argued that the prosecution was an abuse of process and breached his human rights. Following an adjournment after a hearing in chambers with the judge prosecutor Catherine Spedding dramatically announced: 'We have had time to consider the cases as a whole. 'We have come to the conclusion that they stand little likelihood of convictions, and therefore offer no evidence against Mr. Cotton on all three counts.' During the legal argument hearings the court heard it was alleged that when the police raided Cotton's home in April 2002 they found he was growing 373 cannabis plants in various stages of maturity, using a sophisticated growing and lighting system. He was granted bail, and on two further police raids in November 2002 and June last year, officers again seized cannabis plants which he was growing. But Cotton argued that the case against him should be thrown out as 'an abuse of process' for various reasons which formed the basis of the lengthy legal arguments. Among his arguments was that his prosecution for cultivating cannabis was incompatible with his rights under the European Convention on Human Rights. He said they included the right to privacy in his own home, the right to work and religious conviction. Cotton told the court he was growing the cannabis plants for horticultural purposes, to produce seeds which he hoped to be able to sell commercially when the law on cannabis changed. He pointed out that licences have been granted by the government for the growing of cannabis in this country, although he accepted he did not have a licence. He said he was not growing the plants for drug production and would not have supplied any of the leaves to anyone else, although he may have smoked some himself. Miss Spedding told the court during a hearing in December that she would accept Cotton was growing for horticultural purposes, with the exception of small amounts of cannabis which he would have used himself, but still contended that his activity was illegal. After she announced at the resumed hearing that she would offer no further evidence in any of the three case faced by Cotton, Judge Bruce Coles QC formally entered not guilty verdicts on all the charges. Cotton then told the court he intended to apply for costs, adding: 'The main costs are the damages to my two businesses.' Judge Coles pointed out that he would not deal with that aspect, but made a defendant's costs order under which the costs incurred by Cotton in conducting his defence will be paid from central funds.
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