Riot victim says he's a lobster fisherman, not a drug dealer

The man at the centre of a riot on Grand Manan last summer admitted Tuesdayhe uses crack cocaine, but says he doesn't sell drugs from his home.

Last July 22,Grand Manan resident Ronald Ross was beaten up by an angry moband hishome was burned to the ground. Five men are on trial in St. Andrews this week, facing criminal chargesin connection with the incident.

Carter Foster, Matthew Lambert, Michael Small, Lloyd Bainbridge and Greg Guthrie are being tried before a 12-member jury in a provincial courthouse in St. Andrews. Testimony began last Thursday.

Defence lawyer David Lutz has said repeatedly in court that Ross is a drug dealer and had threatened the lives of the men, who were acting in self-defence.

Ross testifiedTuesday he has dozens of criminal convictions dating from 1989 in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. Theyinclude break and enter, theft, extortion, drunk driving and assault.However, he said, he has never been charged with trafficking drugs.

Rossadmitted to using crack at his house occasionally, and saidone of the accused men, Small,used crack at his house 14 months before the riot. On the night of the riot, he admitted to having "two puffs" of crack cocaine.

Ross, who has lived on the Bay of Fundy island for the last decade, told the court he didn't know why people believed he was a drug dealer, and saidit's possible that peopleconfused his using drugs with selling it. He told Crown prosecutor Jim McAvity that he fished lobster for a living.

"Grand Mananers stick together, they gossip back and forth and once somebody doesn't like you, everyone doesn't like you. They try to make things better for all their own people."

Rosslived across the street from one of the five men charged.

He said he had a mortgage on the house that was set on fire, but no insurance. Ross claimedpeople in the community were attacking hishome and property in the time leadingto the riot.

He told the court that someone threw a propane tank from his barbecue throughhis living room window one night while he was out.

Truck ablaze too

Another night,Ross said,someone set fire to a truck in his driveway, with what he thought was a Molotov cocktail.

A few days before the riot,Ross said he stopped someone coming out of the woods near his home, and thathe believed the man was planning to burn his house down.

Ross said that at that time, a rumour had been going around the community that his house would be set on fire.

Firefighters who testified Monday said they'd also heard that rumour.

Three of the men on trialfacecharges of possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose and two are charged with arson.