THE MARQUIS OF BLANDFORD WAS TODAY (THU) SENTENCED
THE MARQUIS OF BLANDFORD WAS TODAY (THU) SENTENCED TO TWO
YEARS JAIL SUSPENDED FOR TWO YEARS AFTER ADMITTING POSSESSION OF
COCAINE.
HE WAS ALSO PLACED UNDER A TWO YEAR SUPERVISION ORDER AND
TOLD TO PAY #2,000 COSTS.
THE 30 YEAR OLD HEIR TO THE BLENHEIM PALACE FORTUNE
– ESTIMATED AT #60 MILLION – SPENT MORE THAT #20,000 ON THE
CHAMPAGNE DRUG IN THE THREE MONTHS LEADING UP TO HIS ARREST ON
DECEMBER 13 LAST YEAR WHEN POLICE FOUND HIM IN A SQUALID USERS’ DEN
IN LONDON’S EDGWARE ROAD.
KNIGHTSBRDIGE CROWN COURT HEARD THAT BLANDFORD, DESCRIBED IN
COURT AS A ‘HOPELESS COCAINE ADDICT’, COULD HAVE DIED AT ANYTIME FROM
A BRAIN HAEMORRHAGE.
THE MARQUIS, WHO APPEARED IN COURT AS CHARLES JAMES SPENCER
CHURCHILL, REDUCED HIMSELF TO A PHYSICAL AND MENTAL WRECK WITH HIS
WHOLE LIFE REVOLVING AROUND HIS NEXT ‘FIX’.
SENTENCING HIM JUDGE HENRY POWNELL, QC, SAID: ‘IT IS QUITE
AWFUL TO SEE SOMEONE LIKE YOU, WITH SO MANY OF THE MATERIAL
ADVANTAGES OF THIS WORLD, PLEAD GUILTY TO THIS OFFENCE.
IN SOME WAYS
YOUR BACKGROUND MAKES IT WORSE’.
AND THE JUDGE ADDED: ‘NOBODY CAN FAIL TO HAVE PITY ON
SOMEONE ADDICTED TO ANY DRUG AND IT IS QUITE PLAIN TO ME YOU HAVE HIT
ROCK BOTTOM.
‘BUT YOU HAD THE WILL POWER WITH THE HELP OF OTHERS TO TRY
AND RID YOURSELF OF THE SCOURGE WHICH WAS RUNNING YOU LIFE AND WHICH
IS QUITE PLAINLY CAUSING UNIMAGINABLE DISTRESS TO THOSE WHO CARE
ABOUT YOU’.
MORE.
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CENTRAL/BLANDFORD.
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THE JUDGE SAID BLANDFORD, WHO WAS VISIBLY SHAKEN AS HE STOOD
QUIETLY IN THE DOCK WITH HIS HEAD BOWED, WAS OBVIOUSLY QUITE A
DIFFERENT PERSON TO THE ONE FOUND IN THE SORDID BASEMENT DRUGS DEN.
‘I ASSUME THE CHANGE IN YOU IS MORE THAN SKIN DEEP BUT DEEP
DOWN TOO.
IF THAT IS RIGHT, YOU ARE IN MUCH THE SAME POSITION IN THIS
CASE AS SAVVIDES, WITH ONE EXCEPTION: HE WAS OF GOOD CHARACTER.
YOU
ARE NOT’.
LAST WEEK ANGELOS SAVVIDES, 37 OF CABBELL STREET,
MARYLEBONE, WAS SENTENCED TO 12 MONTHS IMPRISONMENT SUSPENDED FOR TWO
YEARS AFTER HE ADMITTED ALLOWING HIS BASEMENT TO BE USED BY DRUG
TAKERS.
JUDGE POWNELL CONTINUED: ‘MANY WOULD SAY YOU HAD YOUR LAST
CHANCE EARLIER THIS YEAR.
THEY MAY BE RIGHT BUT I CANNOT FOR MY PART
BRING MYSELF TO DEAL WITH YOU IN ANY WAY THAT WOULD REVERSE THE
OBVIOUS UPWARD TREND YOU HAVE TAKEN AND THAT COURSE WOULD SIMPLY PUT
YOU BACK TO SQUARE ONE.
THAT WILL NOT DO YOU ANY GOOD’.
BUT THE JUDGE ISSUED A STERN WARNING TO THE ARISTOCRAT.
‘IF
YOU COMMIT FURTHER OFFENCES YOU WILL BE BROUGHT BACK TO THE COURT AND
CERTAINLY, AS NIGHT FOLLOWS DAY, THAT SENTENCE WILL BE ACTIVATED IN
ADDITION TO ANY OTHER SENTENCE FOR THE NEW OFFENCES’.
EARLIER BLANDFORD’S COUNSEL, MR ROBIN SIMPSON, QC, SAID HIS
CLIENT WAS DEPENDENT ON DRUGS AND ALCOHOL TO AN APPALLING EXTENT.
HE SAID THAT IN THE THREE OR FOUR MONTHS LEADING TO HIS
ARREST BLANDFORD HAD BEEN BUYING COCAINE FROM ANOTHER DEFENDANT –
GEORGE YANNAKAKIS – SPENDING #20,000, AND HAD BECOME INVOLVED IN
‘FREEBASING’ THE DRUG.
‘FRIDAY THE 13TH OF DECEMBER IS AN OMINOUS DATE, BUT IN
BLANDFORD’S CASE A LUCKY ONE BECAUSE IF HE HAD NOT BEEN ARRESTED, GOD
KNOWS WHAT WOULD HAVE HAPPENED’, HE SAID.
‘HE REDUCED HIMSELF TO A PHYSICAL AND MENTAL WRECK.
HE WAS A
TRULY PATHETIC FIGURE.
BY SEPTEMBER LAST YEAR HIS WHOLE DAY REVOLVED
AROUND THE DRUG.
OBTAINING IT, COOKING IT AND SMOKING IT.
‘HE CRAVED FOR IT ON WAKING IN THE MORNING, HE COULD NOT
FUNCTION OR FEEL NORMAL WITHOUT IT – HE JUST LIVED FOR THE NEXT
SMOKE.
‘
MORE.
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CENTRAL/BLANDFORD.
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AND MR SIMPSON DESCRIBED THE WITHDRAWAL SYMPTOMS SUFFERED BY
A COCAINE ADDICT.
‘BECAUSE FREEBASING GIVES AN INSTANT HIGH THE CORRESPONDING
TROUGH INTO WHICH THE USER SINKS IS AS GREAT.
‘HE WAKES SWEATING, HE ACHES ALL OVER AND IS UNABLE TO
SLEEP.
HE TAKES TRANQUILISERS AND ALCOHOL IN ORDER TO SLEEP.
LORD
BLANDFORD WAS SOMETIMES CONSUMING AS MUCH AS A BOTTLE OF VODKA A DAY.
IT DID HAPPEN.
‘
HE SAID THE MARQUIS HAD BEEN AN IN-PATIENT FOR SEVEN MONTHS
AT A PRIVATE DRUGS CLINIC AND WHEN HE ARRIVED THERE HIS CLIENT
WEIGHED THREE STONE UNDER HIS NORMAL WEIGHT.
‘IN THEIR VIEW HE COULD HAVE DIED AT ANY TIME BY CEREBRAL
HAEMORRHAGE OR HEART FAILURE.
IN ANY CASE HE WAS HEADING FOR A
COMPLETE BREAKDOWN’.
COUNSEL SAID BLANDFORD HAD ALREADY SUFFERED SOME DEGREE OF
PUNISHMENT HAVING SERVED THREE MONTHS IN PRISON FOR FAILING TO CHANGE
HIS ADDRESS WHILE ON PROBATION AND ‘HE WAS BRANDED BY THE STIPENDIARY
MAGISTRATE AS A COMMON CRIMINAL – AND HE AND HIS FAMILY HAVE BEEN
SUBJECTED TO HIDEOUS PRESS PUBLICITY’.
BUT MR SIMPSON SAID IN THE FINAL ANALYSIS BLAME MUST BE
ATTRIBUTED TO BLANDFORD HIMSELF FOR THE PUBLICITY AND SHAME BROUGHT
ON HIM AND HIS FAMILY.
IN COURT LISTENING INTENTLY WAS BLANDFORD’S FATHER THE 11TH
DUKE OF MARLBOROUGH AND SISTER LADY HENRIETTA.
MR SIMPSON SAID: ‘THE DUKE HAS MADE A STATEMENT SAYING THE
LAST FEW YEARS HAVE BEEN A NIGHTMARE TO HIM AS FAR AS HIS SON AND HIS
ADDICTION HAVE BEEN CONCERNED.
‘BUT AT LAST THIS YOUNG MAN HAS COME TO HIS SENSES AND HAS A
PURPOSE TO HIS LIFE NOW WHICH LIES IN THE PLACE WHICH, PROVIDED HE
KEEPS OFF DRUGS, HE WILL ONE DAY INHERIT.
‘ONE DAY, PROVIDING HE KEEPS OFF DRUGS, HE IS GOING TO COME
INTO A GREAT INHERITANCE AND ASSUME CONSIDERABLE RESPONSIBILITY.
‘IT DOES JUST LOOK FOR THE FIRST TIME IN HIS LIFE IT IS
POSSIBLE THE FULL IMPLICATIONS OF THAT HAVE DAWNED UPON HIM’.
MORE.
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CENTRAL/BLANDFORD.
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ADDICTION EXPERT PROFESSOR GRIFFITHS EDWARDS, OF THE
UNIVERSITY OF LONDON, SAID BLANDFORD WAS ‘ADDICTED TO THE SEVEREST
POSSIBLE DEGREE’.
HE SAID HE SHOULD CONTINUE TREATMENT WITH A CONSULTANT
PSYCHIATRIST, ATTEND THE FARM PLACE DRUG CLINIC IN OCKLEY, SURREY,
ATTEND ALCOHOLICS AND NARCOTICS ANONYMOUS.
AND THE PROFESSOR RECOMMENDED THAT BLANDFORD HAVE REGULAR
URINE TESTS AS AN EXTRA SECURITY PRECAUTION AGAINST A RELAPSE.
BLANDFORD HAS PREVIOUS CONVICTIONS FOR ASSAULT ON POLICE,
BURGLARY WITH INTENT TO STEAL AND POSSESSION OF A SMALL AMOUNT OF
HEROIN.
ENDS
