THE SCOURGE of drugs and the misery it continues to bring to Angus was highlighted in a sheriff’s warning yesterday that heartbreak and personal tragedy remain the only certain outcomes for those who dabble in substances such as heroin.

Sheriff Kevin Veal at Forfar made his comments after listening to the harrowing narrative of the circumstances surrounding a 22-year-old Kirriemuir man’s death from a cocktail of drugs and alcohol.

The victim was described in court as a much-loved and hard-working young man from the opposite side of the tracks to the four-times convicted drug dealer who sat before him in the dock having supplied heroin which was part of the fatal mix.

The court heard how John McMillan Towns (38) even tried to resuscitate Bruce Ferguson after discovering him lying unconscious hours after giving the tragic victim a £20 ‘score’ bag of the drug—an act which yesterday saw a two-year prison sentence written as the latest entry on the accused’s six-page list of convictions stretching back two crime-filled decades.

Towns (38), of Knowehead Crescent, appeared for sentence having previously admitted on indictment that on November 15, 2006 at his home address he was concerned in the supply of heroin to Bruce Alexander Ferguson (now deceased).

Friends and family were in court to hear depute fiscal Nicola Gillespie narrate a chain of events which involved Mr Ferguson taking Valium and alcohol with others in a Kirrie house on November 15 before he went to the house shared by Towns and his partner.

“Mr Ferguson went into the bedroom with the accused and he was given what is known as a score bag of heroin, a £20 bag,” she said, adding that the drug was smoked but not injected.

Others in the house, including Towns, left to go to Montrose but when they returned that evening were worried about Mr Ferguson and it quickly became apparent he was very unwell.

The fiscal added, “Emergency services were called and the accused gave CPR under the instruction of emergency personnel on the other end of the telephone. Police and ambulance arrived, but at that stage they formed the view that Mr Ferguson had passed away.”

The court heard pathologists confirmed the fatality resulted from a combination of the adverse effects of morphine, diazepam and alcohol intoxication but were unable to state for certain the heroin was the main cause of Mr Ferguson’s death.

Defence advocate Tim Niven-Smith conceded the case highlighted to the wider community and Angus in particular “the perils and dangers of young people from any demographic group and any class of society of taking drugs.”

“Mr Ferguson should in no way be thought of as someone to be referred to in derogatory terms such as junkie or smack head.

“There is nothing to suggest that he was nothing other than a well loved, well liked by his peer group young man and it is all the more sad in those circumstances that his death has resulted from his experimentation with drugs.

“It could be said that they had nothing in common and were not friends, but they were brought together by friendship of using heroin,” said Mr Niven-Smith.

“Two young people from different sides of the street and it was through their use of heroin that Mr Ferguson ended up at the house of Mr Towns in the hope that Mr Towns would be able, in Mr Towns’ phraseology, to ‘help him out’.

“Whilst this is a serious example of being concerned in the supply of drugs with serious consequences for Mr Towns, he is not criminally responsible—he may be morally—for Mr Ferguson’s death. What is pretty clear is that Mr Towns is a particularly sad individual who has had the most sad set of circumstances in his life.

“I don’t invite the court to take pity set against the circumstances that a young man has died... but he is someone entrapped in an addiction to heroin that knows no bounds.

“It would be nice to think that something positive, no matter how small, could come out of the death of a young man and Mr Towns’ rehabilitation may prevent others being put into a set of circumstances where the same thing could occur in the future.

“He has expressed a desire to remain drug-free and he puts that down to the haunting of the incident that occurred in his partner’s house on November 15, 2006,” added Mr Niven-Smith, saying his client had suffered flashbacks to the events of that day.

Sentencing Towns, Sheriff Veal noted the accused had been convicted of four directly analogous drugs supply offences, the last resulting in a 54-month High Court prison sentence almost six years ago.

“It is clear that the amount of the drug supplied was not substantial. However, the sad circumstances of this whole case, indeed of both the death of Mr Ferguson as well as the lifestyle of the accused, bring to the notice of the wider public the possible consequences and ramifications of dabbling in proscribed drugs, to whatever degree,” he said.

“I recognise that the accused has not been charged with, nor has pled guilty to, a charge of culpable homicide or of culpable and reckless conduct.

“I am without hesitation of the view that only an immediate custodial sentence of a significant duration would be a suitable disposal in this case.

“This offence would, in my opinion, normally attract a sentence of 32 months’ imprisonment, but having regard to the fact of the plea and that a jury trial of some duration has been avoided, the sentence of the court will be discounted by one quarter to 24 months’ imprisonment.”

Sheriff Veal also ordered Towns to serve a 12-month supervision order on his release, to include drug counselling as directed by the local authority.