Cleaners find drugs in hotel room

The annual festival attracts 20,000 music lovers to Loch Ness

A pair of rock festival revellers were arrested after cleaners found drugs in their hotel bedroom, a court has heard.

Jacob Child and Darren McCue, who were attending the Rock Ness Festival near Inverness, returned from breakfast to find police searching their room.

The officers found £200 of cocaine, 34 ecstasy tablets worth about £150 and a tiny amount of cannabis resin worth £2.

Child and McCue were each fined £300 by Sheriff Alexander Pollock when they appeared at Inverness Sheriff Court.

Fiscal depute Gary Aitken said cleaning staff at the city's Holiday Inn had found what appeared to be "drug-related paraphernalia" while the pair were out of their room on 10 June last year.

They reported their concerns to a supervisor and the police were called.

'Regrets his actions'

When questioned, gardener Child, 28, and McCue, a 32-year-old joiner, said they had been attending the festival and the drugs had been for their own use.

Child and McCue, both from Edinburgh, pleaded guilty to being in possession of cocaine, ecstasy and cannabis.

Solicitor David Hingston, defending Child, said his client had no previous convictions and the drugs had been bought for the duration of the festival.

He added that it was the first time Child had tried Class A drugs, and that all the drugs found by the police were recreational rather than addictive.

James Grant, representing McCue, said his client had a two-year-old daughter with his partner. His partner also had a nine-year-old daughter from a previous relationship who lived with them.

"He bitterly regrets his actions and is ashamed to be here," Mr Grant said.