Guilty verdict for Dean Wickliffe

High profile killer Dean Wickliffe has been convicted of drugs and weapon charges.

A jury at Tauranga District Court took less than three hours last week to find life parolee Wickliffe, 61, guilty of one count of possession for supply of the controlled drug 1,4-butanediol, commonly known as One4B, after a three-day jury trial finished on Friday.

A bottle containing 250ml of the drug, also known as GBH and Fantasy G, was found in Wickliffe's Maketu home during armed police raid in March 2008.

At a separate court appearance last month, Wickliffe pleaded guilty to the unlawful possession of a loaded .45 Colt revolver which was also found at his house during the raid.

Wickliffe has spent 30 years behind bars. In 1972 he was convicted of murdering Wellington jeweller Paul Miet during an armed robbery, but the charge was reduced to manslaughter 12 years later at retrial.

He was paroled in 1987, but reoffended and was recalled to prison.

Released in 1995, he was later found guilty of murdering Bay of Plenty man Richard Bluett, but that conviction was quashed in 1998 and he was acquitted on retrial.

He has been remanded for sentence.

- NZPA