Ex Psychiatrist on trial for making and selling drugs

A bizarre case. As seen in this report

A former psychiatrist on drug making and selling charges told a housemate amphetamines were good for treating depression, a court was told yesterday.
Joanne Littleford told the Supreme Court in Hobart Dr Kim Patrick Ryan was "very anti the traditional method of psychiatry and medications".

"He believed that psychiatrists overmedicated," she said.

"He said that use of amphetamines in depression was a good thing and he explained it all and theorised about it."

Dr Ryan, 51, of New Town, has pleaded not guilty to making methylamphetamine in December last year and to selling a controlled precursor for the manufacture of a controlled drug between June and October 2005.

He is accused of travelling around the state buying Sudafed flu medication, which contains a necessary ingredient for making methylamphetamine, and selling it to others.

Ms Littleford told the court she let Dr Ryan move into her Kingston home about October or November last year after he had been kicked out of where he had been living.

They met while working at the Eureka Clubhouse, a social and rehabilitation service for people with mental illness.

She said that on December 23 last year Dr Ryan asked her and her sons to spend a couple of days at the Wrest Point Casino and that he would pay for it.

They returned on Christmas Day and that night Dr Ryan and a friend of his began making amphetamines in her kitchen.

Ms Littleford said her relationship with Dr Ryan became "nasty and volatile", which she blamed on him using amphetamines.

She said she asked him to leave after he began arguing with her youngest son and became aggressive.

Cross-examined by Dr Ryan's lawyer, James Crotty, Ms Littleford denied having a sexual relationship with Dr Ryan.

She also denied using amphetamines herself except when she was 17.

"We had a lot of problems in the end because he was using amphetamines and it was causing problems," she said.

The court has heard Dr Ryan had his medical registration suspended in 2004.

The trial is continuing.