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Artist News Legal
Phil Rudd pleads not guilty to allegations he breached home detention rules
By Chris Cooke | Published on Monday 3 August 2015
AC/DC drummer Phil Rudd has pleaded not guilty to those allegations he breached rules of his home detention sentence by drinking alcohol last month.
As previously reported, earlier this year Rudd pleaded guilty to making threats against a man who had worked on the promotion of his solo album. The drummer was then sentenced in the New Zealand courts to eight months home detention and strict rules to stick to a drug and alcohol rehab programme. The judge hearing the case told the drummer that he faced jail if he broke the terms of his house arrest.
But then one weekend last month, Rudd was arrested and spent a night in jail over allegations that he had broken the alcohol rules of his detention. Although he was let out of jail a day later, Rudd didn’t officially enter a plea in relation to that allegation at the time. So he did so at a court hearing earlier today, where he pleaded not guilty.
A new hearing has now been set for November to consider the term breach allegations, though in the meantime the drummer will remain under house arrest rather than serving a full-on jail term. But he could still end up in prison if the new allegations against him are proven in November, though when asked outside court whether that made him nervous, Rudd told reporters: “No, the only thing I’m nervous about is… I don’t actually know what’s going on”. Which possibly amounts to the same thing.