MUMBAI: AC/DC drummer, Phil Rudd, has been sentenced to eight months home detention for drug possession and murder threats. The sentence came from Judge Thomas Ingram on Thursday, after the musician pleaded guilty to the charges in April 2015. The Australian rocker, who now lives in Tauranga, New Zealand, had made several threatening phone calls to his former assistant.

According to the reports, Ingram said, “Queen replaced Freddie Mercury.AC/DC are still going on without you. Your place in the band for the moment does not exist, and will not exist until you address your addiction issues. The reality, Mr Rudd, is this. I consider you badly need help with your drug problem and I consider the best way to deal with that is to give you the sentence I have given you here.”

The drummer will be under tight scrutiny for 24 hours in his Tauranga, New Zealand home. Rudd repeatedly kept on saying, “I understand” to the statements of the judge. According to the reports of the popular news channel in New Zealand, Rudd will have to be jailed if caught with drugs or alcohol, and will have to complete a rehabilitation programme, which will last eight months.

According to the law of New Zealand, a person could face a seven-year long imprisonment for threatening to kill.