A FATHER and son walked from the Royal Court yesterday shedding tears of relief after the court suspended prison terms for growing cannabis. William John Farmer grew 15 plants in an outbuilding at his home in the Vale. He planned to use the drugs to ease chronic back pain which means he can no longer work.

Son Nicholas had helped with moving heavy pots and watering.

Both men pleaded guilty to cultivation.

They were charged after police with a warrant searched the family home last September looking for drugs.

More than a year later they were spared jail, sparking emotional family scenes in the court building.

‘The court has a great deal of sympathy for your unfortunate medical condition,’ said Deputy Bailiff Richard Collas as he passed sentence.

‘This is a genuinely exceptional case which justifies a suspended sentence. Anyone else growing cannabis in Guernsey cannot be expected to be treated so leniently.’

William Farmer, known as John, was sentenced to 18 months and his son to 15, both suspended for two years. The plants will be destroyed.

Mr Farmer, 56, a former freesia grower, has not worked since 1999 because of a back condition which has deteriorated since the 1980s.

He described his pain as ‘constant and intractable’. He takes analgesics and morphine to try to ease it, but a nerve pain spreads from the lower back to his legs, making it feel ‘as though I’ve jumped off a wall on to broken glass’, his advocate, Andrew Ayres, read from a letter.

Mr Farmer had endured several operations to no effect. He had also been told that management of pain relief was his best hope for the future.

He had tried to enlist in a trial of cannabis medicine in 2001 but was rejected because of a liver complication.

Mr Farmer tried cannabis because he was worried about becoming addicted to morphine.

He experimented with one plant, believed it helped when baked in cookies or cakes, and then grew a further 15 to create a year’s supply.

He bought the seeds on the Internet and used his growing knowledge and equipment to create the best environment for the plants.

His son, 20, said he only helped his father when asked.

The crop, calculated at 625g, could have made as much as £4,500 if sold on the streets. But John Farmer said he had no intention of anyone else using it.

‘It’s for my medical use, not for entertainment,’ he told police.