'Silly' father in drugs case avoids jail

A father who gave his two young daughters drugs escaped jail yesterday after the court heard his claims that he did it as part of their “education” concerning the dangers of spiked drinks.

Norwich Crown Court heard that Colin Moyse, 50, wanted his daughters, aged 13 and 12, to know what amphetamines - commonly known as speed - tasted like in case somebody put it in their drinks.

Moyse, of Avondale Road, Gorleston, near Yarmouth, who was said to be “anti-drugs”, put some of the substance on his fingertips and told the girls to taste it, the court was told.

His 13-year-old daughter walked out of the room, but the 12-year-old put the drug on her own finger then into her mouth before spitting it out.

Later, one of the girls told a friend what had happened and Moyse was arrested.

He admitted giving class B amphetamines to his daught-ers between December 2005 and January this year.

On August 1 Judge Paul Downes deferred sentence for four months to see whether there would be any further offending and yesterday Moyse was given a two-year conditional discharge.

Nick Methold, prosecuting, said: “When Mr Moyse was interviewed by police he said it was part of his daughters' education.”

Luke Brown, defending, said at an earlier hearing that Moyse's action had been an error and a misguided view of how to educate children.

He added his client suffered from depression, had difficulties with anger management and was not able to work for more than about an hour at a time.

“He thought it was the right way to educate the girls on drugs and would do it again,” he said.

Judge Downes told Moyse: “It seemed to be a rather extraordinary situation you found yourself in. It is clear from medical evidence you cannot work for the community. It was an extraordinary thing to do.”

At the August hearing he told Moyse: “It was very wrong-headed to do this and a pretty silly way of going about it.”