A Youngtown man whose brother was victim of a horrific murder in 2018 used and trafficked cocaine to deaden the pain, the Supreme Court in Launceston heard.
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Caleb Michael Brettner, 25, plead guilty to trafficking cocaine worth up to $28,000 between November 2021 and March 23, 2022. He also pleaded guilty to possessing and using cocaine.
In 2018 Brettner's brother Jake Anderson-Brettner was brutally murdered by Jack Harrison Vincent Sadler at a house in Riverside over a drug debt.
Defence counsel Grant Tucker said Brettner had resorted to personal use as a consequence of what happened to his brother and self medicated to deaden the pain.
Crown prosecutor Matt Hills said Brettner was pulled over by police in Kings Meadows on March 23, 2022.
After he recorded a positive oral fluid test a drug detector dog sniffed out drugs that he had hidden in two snaplock bags in his underpants.
The bags contained two snaplock bags containing 27.5 and 27.4 grams.
A subsequent search of his home found small quantities and a $10 note rolled up as a snorting straw.
Mr Hills said Brettner transported the drugs for a friend who paid him with about $2000 worth of cocaine in a barter system.
"The cocaine would be worth $27,450 if sold in point form (0.1gram)," he said.
He told police he used about 1-3 grams a day.
Mr Tucker said that Brettner had ceased using cocaine and was in the process of moving to New South Wales.
"He has obtained a heavy rigid licence and is looking at work when he gets back to NSW," Mr Tucker said.
He said that Justice Robert Pearce would recognize Brettner's name because he had been the judge in the trial of Sadler.
He said Brettner had no drug history at all and had made no money from the enterprise.
The Crown did not proceed with a charge of dealing with the proceeds of crime.
Mr Tucker submitted that the matter could be dealt with through the imposition of a fine which would allow him to continue his rehabilitation interstate.
However, Justice Pearce said he doubted that Brettner would have the capacity to pay a fine that reflected the seriousness of what he did.
He said that Brettner would need to abstain form use to maintain a job involving a heavy rigid licence.
He imposed a six month jail term which was suspended for two years on the condition that Brettner commit no offence punishable by imprisonment.
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Nick Clark
I am the Supreme and Magistrates Court reporter for The Examiner. My journalism career has clicked over 34 years and encompasses four different spells at Tasmanian newspapers.
I am the Supreme and Magistrates Court reporter for The Examiner. My journalism career has clicked over 34 years and encompasses four different spells at Tasmanian newspapers.
