Jurors in Englishman's trial to start deliberating tomorrow

Jurors in the trial of an Englishman found with more than 14 kilos of pills hidden between panels of his Mitsubishi Pajero in 2006 are expected to retire to deliberate tomorrow.

Steven John Lewis Marsden is being charged with conspiring to deal in ecstasy. His trial started yesterday.

Mr Marsden had appealed the charge arguing that the drugs he imported were not illegal at the time but the Court of Criminal Appeal decided to leave the decision up to a jury.

It had said that “a person may be found guilty of, say, conspiracy to import heroin into Malta, even though the stuff that he eventually brings into Malta turned out to be baking powder. It all depends on what was actually agreed upon between the conspirators and more specifically on the object of the conspiracy”.

Originally, Mr Marsden had been charged with importing 28 packets of 50,000 ecstasy pills and trafficking in the drug.

But these two charges were dropped when evidence produced during the compilation of evidence showed that the pills did not contain the substance MDMA, but MCPP, which, at the time was not prohibited by Maltese laws.