High-profile businesswoman in P case

A high-profile businesswoman is fighting to keep her identity secret after admitting she supplied the drug P to her dying ex-husband.

The woman bought P on four occasions but said she only ever gave it to her ex-husband, who was bedridden after being diagnosed with terminal cancer last year, the Sunday Star-Times reported.

She had the drugs delivered to her home and took them to her ex-husband in a different part of the country, the High Court in Auckland was told.

Police recovered a small amount of P crystals, pipes for smoking P and electronic scales at her home, but the woman said the paraphernalia belonged to her latest partner.

Police also found crystals in a compartment of her wallet.

The woman had not had name suppression since her arrest in April but her lawyer, Gary Gotlieb, asked for it last week.

The woman was granted interim name suppression, and Mr Gotlieb would apply for permanent name suppression at a hearing next month.

He would apply for the woman to be discharged without conviction, while the Crown would ask for a prison sentence for the woman, arguing her ex-husband was not the only person she supplied the drug to.

The woman would be sentenced next year.

The woman's case followed the recent court case of a high-profile entertainer who was discharged without conviction and granted permanent name suppression after admitting forcing a 16-year-old girl's head into his genitals.

The entertainer's counsel, Ron Mansfield, said a conviction or revealing the man's identity would have an effect on the man and his career that would be disproportionate to the gravity of the offending.

- NZPA