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Mick Jagger Claimed Frame-Up in 1969 Drug Raid

The Guardian reports that Mick Jagger was convinced he was framed in a 1969 drug raid, according to newly released reports.

The controversy around the May 1969 police raid, led by the head of the Chelsea drug squad, the curiously named Detective Sergeant Robin Constable, on Jagger's Cheyne Walk home was to prove typical of its time. Only a few years later senior detectives of Scotland Yard's drug squad under Detective Sergeant "Nobby" Pilcher found themselves on trial at the Old Bailey for just such corrupt practices.

The DPP file released this month at the National Archives shows that Jagger's allegations were taken more seriously than most because his came with the backing of a future Conservative attorney general, Michael Havers, and the Labour MP, Tom Driberg. But a full internal Scotland Yard inquiry was only launched after the Australian police reported that Jagger's partner, the actress Marianne Faithfull, had told them she "hated coppers" because the couple had been framed on trumped-up charges by the London police. Faithfull had been admitted to a Sydney hospital for a drug overdose while she had been in Australia with Jagger where she was supposed to co-star with him in Tony Richardson's film, Ned Kelly.

It's an ugly scenario, and Jagger's version rings true to us:

The DPP file says that Mr Constable decided to raid Jagger's Chelsea home at 48, Cheyne Walk in May 1969 after he was phoned by "an informant" who told him there was cannabis in the house. The informant also suggested they turn up at 8pm when Jagger would be leaving to go to a recording session.

Mr Constable told the Scotland Yard inquiry carried out by Detective Sergeant "Jock" Wilson, a future assistant commissioner, that he waited until Jagger got into his car before showing the warrant. He claimed the Stones lead singer shouted through an open [basement] kitchen window: "Marianne, Marianne, don't open the door. It's the police. They're after the weed."

The officers went into the house and claimed to find some cannabis in a white Cartier box on a table in the sitting room and a large lump of hashish in a desk drawer in a room on the first floor. Mr Constable claimed that Faithfull later asked Jagger: "Have they found it?" and he replied: "Yes, don't worry. It's going to be all right." But Jagger strongly denied this version of events: "I didn't say anything like 'Marianne, it's the law, they're after the weed'. I couldn't have done that because someone had their hand over my mouth. I simply wouldn't have shouted that or used the word 'weed'. It is an almost archaic expression which is never used. I had no knowledge there was any cannabis in the house."

He said that when Mr Constable had asked where the acid was, he had picked up the Cartier box and had pulled out a folded piece of white paper, opened it and said: "Ah, we won't have to look much further." Jagger said he saw the white paper contained some white powder and said: "You bastard, you've planted me with heroin."

There's lots more.

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