A Down's Syndrome sufferer died after he took ecstasy tablets his younger brother was hiding for a friend, Belfast Crown Court heard yesterday. James Tohill watched as his younger brother, Conor, hid eight of the pills for his friend, Michael Joseph Bittles (18).
Bittles, from Granville Place, Belfast, was given 21 months' jail for having the ecstasy tablets with intent to supply them last March.
Describing the case as a "tragedy" not only for the Tohill family, but for Bittles himself, Judge Tom Burgess said it was not the Crown case that Bittles had supplied, or intended to supply, the drugs to the victim.
The tragedy occurred when Bittles and his friend went to a Falls Road bar last March, leaving James, who went back to the bedroom and swallowed at least one and possibly more of the class A drug.
Mr Russell Connell, prosecuting, said that later that evening his sister found James "in a very agitated state and suffering from hallucinations". Although he was given a glass of water, by the following morning his condition had worsened and he was rushed to the City Hospital where he died a week later.
Bittles gave himself up to police after his friend told his devastated family that James may have taken the ecstasy he had been hiding. In a police interview Bittles claimed he had bought the pills from a man outside a nightclub in Talbot Street and he had intended to sell some of them to "make some money".
Mr Barry Gibson, defending, said Bittles felt "responsible for the death of James Tohill and he has been finding it hard to cope with his own personal remorse for his actions".
Bittles, who pleaded guilty to possession and to possession with the intent to supply the Class A drugs, was sent to the Young Offenders Centre for 21 months.