Existing comment:
Weekend at West Wittering
"Our visual reporter captures the dramatic moment when our gallant men in blue leap into the room and apprehend the miscreants."
Private Eye, 21 July 1967
On 12 February 1967, police raided a house-party at Redlands, Keith Richards' manor house at West Wittering, near Chichester, on a tip-off from the News of the World. The police took away some Ambre Solaire suntan lotion, a quantity of Earl Grey tea, joss sticks and a minute amount of cannabis resin.
In May 1967, Mick Jagger was charged with possession of two mild amphetamines (in fact, travel sickness pills bought in Italy), Richards with permitting his house to be used for the smoking of cannabis, and a friend, the art dealer Robert Faiser, with the possession of heroin. (Fraser, in glasses, is shown sitting next to the antique dealer and fellow dandy Christopher Gibbs.) On 27 July all three were found guilty at Chichester Crown Court: Richards was sentenced to one year in jail, Fraser to six months and Jagger to three months. Jagger was later conditionally discharged and Richards' sentence was quashed on appeal.
Also present at Steadman's soiree is Jagger's girlfriend, Marianne Faithful ("the girl in the fur rug"). George Harrison and Pattie Boyd can be spied in the mirror; the West Sussex constabulary discreetly waited for the Beatle to leave before they pounced. |