Young man sentenced to decade behind bars

Tuesday 09 June 2020

A 22-year-old man has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for a number of offences, including importing a bottle of liquid MDMA - a charge Guernsey's Royal Court has never dealt with before.

Jordan Moore-Vieira pleaded guilty to seven different counts before the Royal Court, all of which took place within the space of just a couple of months last year.

He was arrested on 18 August 2019, after returning from a trip to Portsmouth.

Customs officers had been on duty at the Condor arrivals terminal when the defendant arrived back into the island. When he was questioned about his luggage, he admitted having used controlled drugs during his time away but said he didn't have any substances on his person. He continued to speak with the officers in a 'chatty' way, explaining that he was unemployed and had been living with his grandmother.

Pictured: The defendant had just returned from a trip to Portsmouth on Condor.

However, his behaviour changed when he became concerned about the officers' interest in his bag. They came across two mobile phones, as well as a Monkey Shoulder whiskey bottle. Moore-Vieira claimed he had bought the alcohol - which he said was "brandy" - in duty free, but it was noticed that the seal on the bottle had been broken. The defendant told the officers he and his friend had been drinking it on the boat, although very little of the liquid was missing.

At this point, he hit the bottle with force, attempting to push it off the counter to destroy it, but was stopped by one of the officers. Moore-Vieira then became aggressive, trying to head-butt one of the officers, and was arrested.

It was later discovered that the whiskey bottle contained liquid MDMA - a class A drug. An investigation by the States Analyst found that about 249g of high purity MDMA powder could have been extracted from the liquid and, because the Royal Court had never dealt with the drug in liquid form before, Moore-Vieira was sentenced on this basis.

Pictured: The MDMA was concealed in a bottle of Monkey Shoulder whiskey. 

After answering 'no comment' to the majority of questions, the defendant refused to give the pin code to his phone, saying he would "do time" to protect his friends: "I'll take it on the chin, no matter what happens".

He was released on bail, but was brought to police attention once again when he assaulted an acquaintance in Iceland the following month. Although the victim had no lasting injuries, the incident was unprovoked and was said to have left innocent members of the public fearing for their safety.

In the days following the incident, Moore-Vieira failed to surrender to custody in line with his bail conditions and was arrested again on 15 October.

When officers searched the defendant, he was found to be carrying cannabis resin as well as a further 0.85g of MDMA, which he said was for personal use.

His address was searched and officers came across a total of 125.8g of cannabis resin and 0.77g of herbal cannabis, as well as a set of scales, a grinder, another mobile phone and more than £2,000 in cash.

Pictured: The defendant refused to give police the pin code to two of his mobile phones.

At first, the defendant claimed the cash made up his savings as he didn't have a bank account, but he later admitted that he made the money selling drugs.

This was supported by evidence on the mobile phone, which had to be sent to specialists in the UK after Moore-Vieira once again refused to give police his pin code.

In mitigation, Advocate Liam Roffey said the defendant had started misusing alcohol when he was just 11-years-old, before turning to cannabis at 13 and MDMA after being kicked out of school at 16.

"Substance abuse has been ingrained from a very early age," he explained. "It is regrettable that the support services that engaged with him at the time were not able to make the breakthrough that they undoubtedly wished to."

Advocate Roffey asked the court to take into account Moore-Vieira's early guilty pleas, as well as the fact that he is still a "relatively young man", having been 21 when he committed the offences.

"For a young man you have a significant number of previous convictions," the Bailiff, Richard McMahon, told the defendant.

Pictured: The Bailiff, Richard McMahon, sat in the Royal Court with the Jurats.

"This was a substantial importation and something that the court has not previously had to deal with."

Mr McMahon said Moore-Vieira had shown a "total lack of respect for people in authority" and noted that people were appearing in court for failing to comply with police "all too frequently".

"The most positive thing that can be said about you is that you've wasted no one's time in your early guilty pleas," he added. 

"You now seem to have realised that your appalling behaviour to date cannot continue. You know you have let your family down quite spectacularly and you knew the risks you were taking. We do not have much sympathy."

Moore-Vieira was sentenced to nine years and four months in prison for the drugs offences, with a further eight months for refusing to give his pin code on two occasions and three months for assault.

This sentence was backdated to October 2019, when he was remanded in custody.

Pictured top: Jordan Moore-Vieira was sentenced in Guernsey's Royal Court.