Phil Rudd Appeals Eight-Month Home Detention Sentence

Phil Rudd has reportedly lodged an appeal against the home detention sentence he received after being charged with drug possession and threatening to kill.

The New Zealand Herald quotes Rudd's attorney, Craig Tuck, as saying the appeal was filed immediately after Rudd was sentenced to eight months at home. The paper also depicts Rudd as seeming visibly disgruntled after the hearing, telling a reporter to "get a f---ing job" on his way out of the courthouse.

While it seems reasonable to assume that most people who faced Rudd's charges — and pleaded guilty to them — would feel a certain sense of relief after being sentenced to home detention, the Herald notes that Rudd made a strenuous effort to avoid conviction entirely, ascribing the sordid events leading to his arrest to "methamphetamine-induced psychosis" and arguing that a conviction would prevent him from earning "tens of millions of dollars" by touring with AC/DC.

Unfortunately for Rudd, the band is already touring without him — and the Herald's report points out that prosecutors in the case contend that Rudd was "not a member of AC/DC even before the time he was arrested." Rudd, for his part, argues that while there's definitely "uncertainty" regarding his spot in the lineup, his return to the band is "certainly not a closed door."

None of which swayed the judge in the case, who pointed out that as a career musician, Rudd should have been more aware than most of the dangers of drugs — and warned him a repeat offense would lead to certain jail time.

"You are now 61 years old, Mr. Rudd, you are not 21," Judge Ingram reportedly told him. "I'm simply not persuaded that you have done enough to establish the consequences of the conviction would outweigh the seriousness of the offending."

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