Hotel balcony death: Teenager sentenced for offering to supply drugs bought on Silk Road to Preston Bridge
Updated
A Perth teenager has been given a 12-month supervision order for offering to supply synthetic drugs to a 16-year-old boy who died in a hotel balcony fall.
Preston Bridge died in February last year when he fell from the balcony at a Scarborough hotel where he had been celebrating after his school ball.
The Perth Children's Court was told he had taken two tablets of what was believed to be synthetic LSD, purchased by the 17-year-old from a website called Silk Road.
He pleaded guilty to offering to supply them to Preston and three others.
Prosecutor Sean Stocks said there was no correlation between Preston's death and the charges against the boy.
However, the boy's lawyer Seamus Rafferty said "there was a sense of responsibility" felt by his client.
"He deeply regrets that he purchased this substance, and provided it to others. He deeply regrets the death of ... Preston," he said.
Mr Rafferty said some people felt his client was directly responsible for Preston's death and the teenager had been assaulted on two occasions, once by a man who referred to him as a murderer.
He said the boy offered to supply the drugs because "he wanted to ingratiate himself in that group, become one of the cool kids".
Mr Rafferty told the court that while the boy had initially "gone completely off the rails", he had now turned his life around.
Judge Richard Keen said the boy felt a sense of responsibility, but it was "not supported by an evidence that the provision of the drugs caused the death of Preston Bridge".
He placed the boy on a 12-month intensive youth supervision order with a requirement that he complete 100 hours of community service work.
Preston Bridge's sister, Aimee and his father, Rod, were in court for the sentencing.
Mr Bridge said he was happy with the outcome.
"I think the young teenager has showed some remorse in what's happened. I don't think he expected Preston's death but I hope the lesson has been learned," he said.
He said he had no doubt what happened was caused by whatever drug his son took that night.
"I think the young boy himself knows. I think the rest of the kids in the room all know," he said.
"They know Preston doesn't run 15 metres along a balcony and jump, so something in his mind made him do it."
However Mr Bridge said he did not blame the 17-year-old for what happened.
"We can sit here all day and try to point the finger at people, but when it comes to internet sites and dealing drugs - they're the ones that are responsible," he said.
Topics: courts-and-trials, drug-offences, scarborough-6019, perth-6000
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