The jury deliberating in a case of a doctor who admits failing a roadside drink-driving test but denies possessing cocaine has been discharged after failing to reach a verdict.
Pandora Necklace CharmJoanne Marsden-Williams was found to be two-and-a-half times the drink-driving limit when she was breathalysed by police outside a hotel in Tavistock on September 16 last year.
She was taken to Launceston police station, but did not give a sample.
She admits failing to supply a specimen for evidential purposes after failing a roadside test.
However, the 35-year-old doctor in obstetrics and gynaecology denied possession of just over half a gram of cocaine which police subsequently found in a purse in her handbag.
A jury of eight men and four women at Truro Crown Court deliberated for nearly five hours but was unable to reach a unanimous verdict or a majority verdict.
Judge Nicholas Vincent said he was faced with no alternative but to discharge the jury.
The Crown Prosecution Service is now deciding on whether to press for a retrial.
On Monday, Marsden-Williams told the court the cocaine belonged to Hannah Lewis-Jones, with whom she shared a flat at Cambridge Park, Redlands, Bristol.
The two Dimmable LED Bulb GB-G60-8W women had attended a festival weeks earlier and shared the green sparkly purse, in which they kept their "kitty" money.
Yesterday, Miss Lewis-Jones, a business development manager with an IT firm, told the jury that the cocaine in the purse was hers.
She said that she used the drug "socially" every few months but knew her flatmate did not approve.
On August 18-19 last year, she said, the two women had gone to the V Festival in Staffordshire and taken the "travelling" purse to put their money in as they felt it was more secure.
She said they had spent most of the weekend together and only at one point split up to see different bands, with Marsden-Williams going to see Amy Winehouse and her friend seeing the Foo Fighters.
Miss Lewis-Jones said she had taken the purse and had bought a gram of cocaine for about pounds40.
She said that after consuming half of it: "I put it back in the purse." When they got back home to Bristol she said she removed her cashpoint cards
embroidered patches but not the drugs and she told the court: "I had completely forgotten about it."
She said she was sharply reminded that she had bought the drugs and left them in the purse when her friend returned home from Tavistock and told her about being arrested.
Under cross-examination from prosecutor Philip Lee, Miss Lewis- Jones denied she was "attempting to help a desperate friend in desperate need".
After being questioned by defence barrister Orlando Pownall QC, she said: "I have got nothing to gain and everything to lose.
"If I was in the same situation I would hope a friend would do the same [tell the truth] for me."
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