Fenton case adjourned until after Cheltenham

The case against racehorse trainer Philip Fenton regarding the alleged possession of banned animal medicines, including anabolic steroids, will not go ahead until after the Cheltenham festival.

Mr Fenton (49), of Garryduff, South Lodge, Carrick-on-Suir, Co Tipperary, was not in court yesterday when the charges against him were mentioned and counsel for the Minister for Agriculture indicated there would be 12-15 witnesses called, including some from France.

The accused’s solicitor, Declan Molan, applied in court for an adjournment of six weeks to allow for the preparation of legal submissions and was given four weeks by Judge Terence Finn.

The State, represented by John Ryan, opposed the application on the basis that the case was already adjourned in December and January.

“We’re ready to proceed,” he said, pointing out that the last adjournment in January was on the request of the defence.

“My instructions were that it was adjourned with a view to either a plea or the matter being sent on for trial,” Mr Ryan said.

Submissions
Mr Molan told the court the defence had counsel working on legal submissions, which related to the jurisdiction of the court to deal with the charges.

The judge said that if the legal submissions the defence wanted to make “go to the root” of the court’s jurisdiction over the charges, “that is a matter that has to be taken in advance”.

Mr Ryan said it was “only very, very recently” that the State had been told about the defence’s submissions. “It’s very vague.”

He said, in reply to a question from the judge, that the Minister for Agriculture wanted the matters dealt with in the District Court.

Legal team
The judge adjourned the case until March 20th to hear the legal submissions, and ordered the defence to have their submissions in writing with the court office and the State's legal team a week before that date.

Mr Fenton faces eight charges relating to the possession of unlicensed animal remedies at his yard at Garryduff on January 18th, 2012.

Two of the charges are regarding the alleged illegal possession of Nitrotain, a medicine that contains the anabolic steroid ethylestranol, reported to improve the muscle mass, strength and stamina of horses.

Another two charges relate to the alleged illegal possession of ilium stanabolic. This medicine contains the anabolic steroid stanozolol, a prohibited substance.

Other charges against Philip Fenton relate to the alleged possession of prescription- only medicines for horses, including antibiotics – these medicines were Marbocyl 10 per cent, Betamoz LA, Neomycin Penicillin, and Engemycin 10 per cent – when there were no veterinary prescriptions for the remedies at the time that the trainer’s yard at Garryduff was visited by officials from the Department of Agriculture in January 2012.