editorial comment A repressed minister.....paraphernalia thinks that the psychologist needs to pop too.... can you have more cliches in one statement (yes, you can, if you are Bush....)

A 60-YEAR-old religious minister was caught with drugs at an inner-city nightclub after being shunned by his church because his wife left him.

Kevin Arthur Caulton pleaded guilty at Downing Centre Local Court to one count of possessing a prohibited drug, an ecstasy tablet stamped with a yellow "smiley face".

Caulton, a "repressed" Uniting Church minister and hospital chaplain, was at the Exchange Hotel's Phoenix Bar on Oxford St, Darlinghurst, on October 3 when it was raided by police with sniffer dogs at 1am.

Caulton, of Engadine, turned to police when tapped on the shoulder and said, "I've got one ecstasy", court documents reveal. A 0.5g pill of MDMA in a small plastic bag was removed from his wallet.

Caulton is a current minister of the Uniting Church, with parish and presbytery responsibilities in Sydney and the ACT, and also works as a pastor chaplain with Canberra hospital.

A clinical psychologist's report tendered to the court detailed stress in Caulton's life since 1993, when he was forced to leave the Uniting Church, where he had ministered for 25 years.

He was asked to resign when his wife left him for another man, taking their three children, because the church rejected divorce.

"While his [drug-taking] behaviour appears somewhat erratic, it is behaviour that is consistent with an individual coming from a repressed background and never exploring the issues that other people usually explore much earlier in life," the report stated.

In a written reference former colleague John McCaffey stated the offence was "completely uncharacteristic" of Caulton, who "knows the perils of substance abuse and other risk-taking behaviour", both as a minister and a single father.

The offence was found proven but no conviction was recorded, and Caulton was ordered to pay court costs.

The Daily Telegraph

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