Weir fights his sentence
Posted: 23 Oct 2003, 07:14
FORMER boxing world champion Paul Weir is to challenge his jail sentence for dealing cannabis.
His lawyers have lodged a notice of appeal against his conviction and the 30-month jail sentence he was handed.
Weir, 36, could even be freed pending the outcome of the appeal.
A High Court trial heard how the former boxer was caught in May last year.
Officers found cannabis worth £21,000 in Weir's parked car at a hotel in Muirhead, Lanarkshire.
Weir claimed the drugs belonged to another man.
But a jury found the dad-of-two guilty of being concerned in the supply of cannabis.
Lord Wheatley jailed Weir at the High Court in Edinburgh two weeks ago.
Scottish Socialist MSP Rosemary Byrne, a friend of the family, said: "It was his first offence and involved cannabis, not hard drugs. The sentence was harsh.''
His lawyers have lodged a notice of appeal against his conviction and the 30-month jail sentence he was handed.
Weir, 36, could even be freed pending the outcome of the appeal.
A High Court trial heard how the former boxer was caught in May last year.
Officers found cannabis worth £21,000 in Weir's parked car at a hotel in Muirhead, Lanarkshire.
Weir claimed the drugs belonged to another man.
But a jury found the dad-of-two guilty of being concerned in the supply of cannabis.
Lord Wheatley jailed Weir at the High Court in Edinburgh two weeks ago.
Scottish Socialist MSP Rosemary Byrne, a friend of the family, said: "It was his first offence and involved cannabis, not hard drugs. The sentence was harsh.''