Oxford student admits drug dealing

An Oxford University student has admitted to a court to being a drug dealer. Benjamin O'Brien, a first-year student at Somerville College, admitted possessing and supplying ecstasy and cannabis as well as possessing cocaine and amphetamines.

The man, from Halifax, Yorkshire, was granted bail by Oxford Crown Court, conditional that he reports daily to his local police station, surrenders his passport, keeps to a night-time curfew and does not return to Oxfordshire until his sentencing on 5 September.

Somerville College suspended O'Brien when he was first arrested in June, but allowed him to sit his exams in politics, philosophy and economics. Dr James Logue, dean of the college, said it had yet to make a decision about whether O'Brien would be forced to leave.