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Joseph Douglas McGirr, 39, was found not guilty of supplying ecstasy to an American polo player who died of an overdose at home, but guilty of trying to cover it up, Stuff reports.
Joseph McGirr
Photo: THINGS / JOHN KIRK-ANDERSON
McGirr was tried in Christchurch District Court after pleading not guilty to two counts of supplying a class B controlled drug and attempting to pervert the course of justice.
Lauren Biddle
Photo: Supplied
He was accused of having supplied MDMA to 22-year-old American polo star Lauren Mikaila Biddle at a party at his home on October 21, 2018.
The Crown argued that they and two others had smoked cannabis and were drinking in a spa pool at McGirr’s home.
McGirr prepared three lines of the MDMA drug on a plate after one person left, the Crown case said, and when the remaining man, Guy Higginson, came out to the spa where McGirr and Biddle were a short time later, McGirr said he was dead.
The prosecutor said McGirr later withheld evidence.
However, the defense argued that the three were together at the spa when McGirr noticed that Biddle was unresponsive, and that it was McGirr who performed CPR on him.
Stuff has reported that after two days of deliberations, McGirr has been found not guilty of the drug charges, but of the charge of attempting to pervert the course of justice. He has been placed in preventive detention on bail and will be sentenced next year.
