Siaosi Helu was today found guilty of unlawful possession 0.04 grams of methamphetamine found hidden inside his tight pants, during a routine body search by Police, when arrested for public drunkenness.

Hon Mr Justice Niu convicted him after a trial, at the Nuku’alofa Supreme Court.

He said the methamphetamine was found inside a small self-sealing transparent plastic pack.

The pack was found by a Police Constable, when he conducted a routine body search of the accused at the police station before putting him into the cell for being drunk in a public place, namely the road frontage of a storage container situated next to a Chinese shop on Tupoulahi Road at Fasi on August 5, 2020.

The pack was found hidden inside a pair of "tight" pants, which the accused wore underneath his pair of shorts, between his legs, together with two short glass test tubes and a half straw, said the judge.

From the Crown's evidence the accused who was drunk was rowdy and noisy. He had liquor on his breath and talked loudly and incoherently.

The Chinese shop owner complained to the accused's father, who owned the allotment on which the shop is situated, and the father called the police. The police came there and the accused was on the front of the road, a public place.

The accused was arrested together with a friend.

"I have found on the sworn evidence of the seven witnesses called by the Crown, that the Crown has proved beyond reasonable doubt that the accused did possess knowingly 0.04 grams of methamphetamine."

The accused will be sentenced on later date.