Illegal sex-change drugs found after train station arrest
Published: 00:01, 29 August 2015
A young man conscious about his body bought illegal drugs to boost his muscles thinking they were steroids... but the tablets turned out to be gender reassignment pills.
Ryan Zuckok, 21, was found with the drug when he was searched by police after being arrested for swearing and threatening officers at Gillingham railway station.
He had come to railway staff’s attention when he flew into a rage after dropping his phone on the platform.
Staff believed he was drunk and unfit to board a train and called for help from British Transport Police officers who arrested Zuckok on suspicion of being drunk and disorderly.
He was also found with a lock-knife in his jeans pocket, and a further search at the police station uncovered the gender reassignment pills.
Zuckok, of Clarence Road, Chatham, was charged with threatening behaviour, possession of an offensive weapon and possession of a Class C drug and admitted all three charges when he appeared before magistrates in Medway.
The court heard how he had told police that he had been wearing his father’s trousers at the time and was unaware of the knife in his back pocket.
He also told officers that the drug he had purchased was a steroid to bulk his muscles, but further investigations revealed the drug was actually one prescribed to women who are going though gender reassignment.
Derek Hayward, defending, said: “He thought he was buying steroids. But the drugs turned out to be hormone replacement therapy drugs that turn females to male.
“Suffice to say, as soon as he found out he stopped taking them.”
Magistrates jailed Zuckok for six weeks but suspended the term for six months for having the offensive weapon and ordered he pay £265 court costs.
Zuckok received no separate penalties for the other two offences.
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Lynn Cox