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Methamphetamine charges against a Westport teenager found at the scene of a drugs raid at Okains Bay on Banks Peninsula have been ruled out by the High Court at Christchurch.
Renee Frances Parata Salter, 18, was found at the historic Okains Bay store when police surrounded the building early on December 12 last year. Four arrests were made, and depositions were heard in July when all the accused were committed for trial.
But defence counsel Tony Garrett applied to the High Court for a discharge for Salter and Justice Graham Panckhurst accepted the application, saying that empty snaplock bags - sometimes used to hold drugs - found in her backpack did not establish that she knew what was allegedly going on. She had been taken there by her boyfriend.
- NZPA
