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Artist News Legal
808 State DJ given prison sentence for drug dealing
By Andy Malt | Published on Monday 12 January 2015
808 State’s Darren Partington has been sentenced to eighteen months in prison for possession of heroin and crack with intent to supply.
The musician was arrested in July after police searched him and discovered sixteen wraps of heroin and eight of crack and £145 in cash. According to the Manchester Evening News, Manchester Crown Court heard that Partington had been pressured into selling the drugs to pay off a cocaine debt. A £300 debt had been increased to £1000, and threatening messages ordering him to comply were also found on his mobile phone.
His lawyer said that Partington was recently divorced and living with his stepfather, earning as little as £7000 a year from DJing and had been “easy prey” for the dealer.
Agreeing that there had been coercion, the judge said that a custodial sentence would nonetheless have to be applied, telling the 45 year old DJ: “Whatever the fear you had for your family you should have been man enough, at your age, to resist. Instead you chose to peddle drugs which cause misery to people and a cycle of crime”.
