A rapist was jailed for drug dealing after leading police officers to his stash – but tests then revealed it was only paracetamol and caffeine.
Derek Kennedy, 26, told cops he had been forced by gangsters to hide drugs and money in his house.
Officers searched the property and found powder and a safe containing thousands of pounds.
But tests later revealed the substance was a mixture of caffeine and paracetamol – used by dealers to bulk out heroin before it is sold to users.
Despite telling police about the hoard, Kennedy was arrested and charged with drug dealing.
He denied being “concerned in the supply of paracetamol and caffeine” which “believe to contain” diamorphine, which is more commonly known as heroin.
Kennedy, who is serving a five-year sentence for rape, went on trial over the charges at Paisley Sheriff Court.
He was charged with breaking the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 but claimed he had been told he would be murdered and his partner harmed if he didn’t store the items at his home in the town.
The sex offender entered special defences of coercion and incrimination, blaming a man named Daniel Taylor.
His solicitor, Joseph Barr, told the court: “He went voluntarily to the police station and told police the full details.
"He fully cooperated and told them exactly what they would find and exactly where they would find it.”
However, a jury convicted him of being concerned in the supply of drugs between July and October 2018.
He was jailed for two years.
After hearing Kennedy would serve his sentence for rape until at least 2023, Sheriff Brian Mohan said: “You’ve been found guilty by the jury of being concerned in the supply of drugs.
"You were part of a large-scale commercial drugs supply operation.
“The discovery of this matter was down to you telling the police about it.”
Earlier this year, Kennedy was jailed at the High Court in Glasgow for rape at a property in Ardrossan, Ayrshire.
In May 2019, he attacked the woman while her children slept in the house.
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