Asia-Pacific News
Wheelchair drug lord's prison sentence a first in Australia
May 31, 2009, 7:50 GMT
Sydney - A 36-year-old Sydney man caught dealing in millions of dollars of illicit drugs has become the first quadriplegic to be sent to jail in Australia, news reports said Sunday.
All other wheelchair-bound offenders had served time under home detention.
'There is only one unusual feature in this man's case, otherwise it is more or less a conventional conspiracy to manufacture an illicit drug,' Judge Robert Toner said after sentencing Paul Baker to 10.5 years in prison.
Toner noted that Baker, who pleaded guilty to importing chemicals that would be used to manufacture millions of ecstasy tablets, was a quadriplegic at the time of the offence.
The Sun Herald newspaper said medical experts had told last week's hearing that the prison system could cope with a wheelchair-bound inmate.
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