AC/DC drummer Phil Rudd to fight charges

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/dec/02/acdc-drummer-phil-rudd-to-fight-charges

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AC/DC drummer Phil Rudd will fight the three charges relating to drugs and threatening behaviour laid against him, his lawyer has told a New Zealand court.

Rudd’s lawyer Paul Mabey QC said his client had entered not guilty pleas on charges of threatening to kill, possessing cannabis and possessing methamphetamine within the past week.

The case will next be before Tauranga district court on 10 February and will go to a judge-alone trial later in 2015.

Rudd, who was excused from appearing at court on Tuesday, was also charged with attempting to procure a murder when he first appeared in court on 6 November.

But the charge was dropped a day later after crown solicitor Greg Hollister-Jones reviewed the file.

Judge Thomas Ingram granted name suppression to three people on the grounds of hardship, and fair trial reasons for a fourth person.

He refused media applications to view the court file on the grounds that the crown would release a brief summary of facts to media.