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A nurse is on trial for allegedly giving cannabis and meth to a patient who had been admitted to a psychiatric ward struggling from severe alcoholism, a court heard.
The 39-year-old Bahraini, accused of providing narcotics to the elderly booze addict on the very first day of his stay at the Psychiatric Hospital, denies all charges.
Prosecutors suggest the psychiatric nurse searched for vulnerable customers in the ward to later profit from selling drugs, once the patients became addicted, at a higher rate than market price.
The victim’s sons told the Public Prosecution that they spotted the defendant dropping their dad off at their home and smelled a ‘strange stench’ from his car, unlike typical cigarette smoke.
After confronting him, the defendant allegedly admitted to giving his passenger hashish. They lodged a complaint about him at the hospital.
He was subsequently charged with providing narcotics to another individual for free, having previously been convicted of possessing drugs for personal use.
Prosecutor Zahra Murad asked judges at the High Criminal Court to penalise the suspect to the fullest extent of the law, since he targeted a vulnerable individual, submitting a memorandum to the court outlining the prosecution’s demands.
In the memo, she claimed that the suspect sought out new potential customers in the psychiatric ward and promoted narcotics to them, making a profit by selling them for more than the typical rates.
“The defendant gave no heed to the victim’s condition, and rather offered him drugs, and discouraged him from going to the hospital so his deeds were not discovered,” read his submission to judges.
“He met the victim two months before his arrest and had continued to provide him with narcotics after being discharged from the hospital.
“He would visit the victim at night and give hashish to him with cigarette wrapping paper.”
The letter also included transcripts of recorded telephone conversations between the suspect and the addict, in which the nurse told the patient that he was picking up drugs from dead drops on Budaiya Highway to pass on to the former patient.
In another recorded call, the Bahraini nurse recounted being accosted by the patient’s sons and having to explain to them his association with their father.
Among the defendant’s incriminating quotes were ‘if anyone asks, I didn’t give you anything’ and ‘if they take your urine sample, don’t tell them you got (the drugs) from me’.
He admitted to giving hashish to the victim during Public Prosecution hearings.
The sons, aged 29 and 33, testified that the nurse ‘appeared to be high’ when he dropped off their father.
The hearing was adjourned to Monday for defence arguments.
zainab@gdnmedia.bh
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