A finalist of ITV2’s ’Survival Of The Fittest’ felt suicidal at damaging his ‘brand’ after police found an electric stun gun and cocaine during a raid on his bedroom in his mother’s house.
Fitness trainer and model David Pearse Lundy, 26, was woken in bed by police looking for firearms and weapons during the early-morning search.
Lundy, of Aragon Road, Morden pleaded guilty at Kingston-upon-Thames Crown Court to possessing a prohibited weapon and two small paper wraps of cocaine on December 21, last year.
He was sentenced to six months imprisonment, suspended for twelve months and ordered to perform 120 hours community service.
Lundy was also fined £75 for the cocaine charge and ordered to pay £670 costs.
The raid was before he made the final of the show - dubbed Love Island’s winter alternative - which was shot in South Africa featuring teams of Boys v Girls.
Fortunately the charge was reduced from a more serious one, which carries a minimum of five years imprisonment.
“A doctor’s report describes the depressive and anxiety issues that this defendant suffers from and the fear engendered in him from damaging the brand he has worked so hard for,” said Mr. Oliver Blunt QC, defending.
“He has had thoughts of suicide, but has been persuaded from that as his mother needs his assistance and support.”
Prosecutor Mr. Nicholas Dunham told the court: “Police officers executing a search warrant went to David Lundy’s home address.
“The door was opened by his mother, who said he was upstairs asleep in bed.
“Officers went upstairs and woke him up and asked if there were any guns or weapons in the room.
“He said there was a torch with an electric thing on the end in a chest of drawers.
“The officer opened the drawer and found the black torch described by Mr. Lundy.
“They searched the wardrobe and Mr. Lundy directed them to two paper wraps and said: ‘It’s coke. Some stuff for a Christmas night out.’
“He was arrested and made no reply and taken to the police station, where he made no comment in interview.”
The ‘torch’ was tested by expert Nicola Hater, who said: “It was a duel-purpose hand-held shock device, known as a stun gun with a torch attached to it.
“It was covered in black tape and the meta heads were flush with the outer casing. It was powered by an integral chargeable battery.”
The stun gun was tested and was in working order, delivering an electric charge.
Mr. Dunham added: “Discharges are meant to incapacitate by interfering with muscle control, causing spasms, pain, mental confusion and loss of balance.”
Lundy’s QC said imprisonment would prevent him participating in a ’Survival of the Fittest’ v ‘Eastenders’ charity football match on June 23 to raise funds for the John Hopkins Trust cancer charity.
“You could not have clearly more co-operation from the defendant. It was he that pointed out to the police where this device would be located in a drawer in a chest of drawers and where this minute amount of cocaine would be located.
“In fairness to Mr. Lundy he could not have been more co-operative at the scene with the police officers.
“He is by way of occupation a freelance model and personal trainer.
“By way of notoriety he participated in ITV2’s ‘Survival of the Fittest’, an eight-week engagement and in fact reached the final.”
The court heard Lundy is due to take over management of a government-run Woking fitness centre on July 1, on a salary of £23,500.
Lundy assists his petite mother Tracey Jane Lundy in caring for his sister Emma, 29, who has cerebral palsy and severe epilepsy.
“She has considerable handicaps,” said Mr. Blunt. “His mother needs the assistance of David to care for her severely disabled daughter.
“She simply cannot cope without the assistance of her son.”
Recently Lundy’s anti-anxiety prescription was doubled.
“Despite suffering from depression and anxiety himself he has helped others as an ambassador for that condition.”
A woman suffering cancer of the cervix wrote a reference for Lundy describing him as “sincere, dependable, loyal and honest.”
Lundy was given the stun gun a year and a half earlier while employed as a bouncer at the West End’s Hippodrome nightclub.
“While he was working there he was given the object by a co-employee.
‘It was found in a chest of drawers. Mr. Lundy had not handled it for over eighteen months and dumped it in a drawer. It was not even charged.”
He is a volunteer with ‘Kingston Street Pastors’. “Mr. Lundy has a great relationship with Kingston Police,” said the QC.
The lawyer also produced a reference commending Lundy for staying with and helping a bleeding young woman suffering a serious head wound outside the Hippodrome.
He has contracts with three Public Relations companies, including Toto and Streamline. as he pursues a celebrity career and fear he may fall foul of their “unacceptable behaviour” clauses and be dumped.
“There is a risk that Mr. Lundy’s pleas could result in termination of his contracts. That he has damaged his reputation,’ added the QC.
“There are a lot of really positive features about this young man, who appears before the court for the first time and is of good character.”
Judge Georgina Kent told Lundy: “It’s dangerous because weapons like these can be used to incapacitate and in the wrong hands be used to inflict serious harm.
“It is sold in some countries as self-defence, but not in this country.
‘You have no previous convictions. From what I have heard you are a hard-working man of positive character with medical issues of your own and relied on by your family.
“You worked as a doorman. You knew this weapon was prohibited and potentially dangerous.
“As a fitness instructor you do not need me to tell you how dangerous Class A drugs are.”
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