A CANNABIS user who illegally grew the drug in his Carlisle home blamed trauma linked to a police “error” that triggered unfounded rumours of him being accused of a sex crime.

Cumbria Police admitted sending information to somebody which wrongly suggested Daniel Blair, 50, was bailed while under suspicion of child rape.

But despite force officials accepting the information was incorrect and apologising, Blair had suffered a backlash which has included repeated assaults and his property being attacked, magistrates heard.

At the city’s Rickergate court, Blair admitted illegally producing the class B drug at his home on November 18 last year.

Prosecutor Graeme Tindall said the offence came to light after police visited the defendant’s Whernside home for unrelated reasons and discovered that he was growing nine cannabis plants, though it was accepted they were for personal use.

Blair told the officers that he grew the drug himself because he found it difficult to buy it in his local area. “The police took him at his word and did not conduct any investigation so far as the [plant] yields were concerned,” said the prosecutor.

John Halewood-Dodd, defending, told magistrates: “He smokes cannabis, and he will continue to smoke cannabis because he suffers from PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder).

“It’s the only way he can sleep at night.

"He was before the court some years ago – two or three years ago – in relation to matters which arose from a domestic case and papers within that domestic case were sent by the police to the other side, his former partner, suggesting that he was on bail for the rape of a child.

“That was incorrect information, and the police accept that and have apologised to him. But it’s not as simple as that.

“People think there is no smoke without fire and despite it being accepted by Cumbria Constabulary as an error it still has ongoing consequences… His property has been attacked, he has been assaulted a number of times as a result of that.

“As recently as last week, he was attacked near to his home address. The consequence of that is that he does not go out if he can avoid it for fear of being attacked.”

Documents from the local mental health team confirmed that Blair was suffering from PTSD and consequently he felt the only way he could sleep was by smoking cannabis.

“It’s constantly on his mind that he will be the victim of an attack,” said Mr Halewood-Dodd, explaining that the defendant feared that any drugs he bought from outside his home may be laced with some other substance, given the animosity he had already experienced.

That was why he grew his own cannabis.

From the dock of the court, Blair told magistrates that he was due to get a cannabis product on prescription. Magistrates adjourned sentencing, saying they needed a background report from the Probation Service.

Blair was granted bail and will be sentenced on May 28.

* After being approached by the News & Star, Cumbria Constabulary issued the following statement: "The Constabulary wrote to the individual in 2021 to confirm that an error had been made in correspondence with a third-party, resulting in inaccurate information being communicated with regards to a charge.

"In the correspondence, the Constabulary apologised for any inconvenience or distress caused by the error. The Constabulary reiterates that apology today."