Mum took drug into prison for her son
A MOTHER pressured into smuggling drugs into the prison for her son in a packet of crisps has been sent to prison for a year.
Katy Thomason, 49, who at a previous court appearance had given her address as 13, Courtil Bris, St Peter Port, admitted supplying the class C drug, buprenorphine, to another.
The Royal Court heard that at 5.30pm in March 2018, Thomason went to the prison to visit her son. They sat at a table and two packets of crisps were bought and eaten.
The son had one packet.
Thomason was seen on CCTV to put her hand up to her mouth and take something out. She hid it in her hand, before looking around and putting her hand in her son’s crisp packet.
Prison officers saw the exchange and removed the son from the visitors’ room.
Inside the bag was found a wrap containing drugs.
When asked about it, the son said: ‘Please, just flush it, so my mum doesn’t get in trouble’.
The drugs were analysed and found to contain four tablets and 0.18g, all of which was Buprenorphine.
It had a street value of between £200 and £400.
Judge Russell Finch said the prison should be a drug-free environment and Thomason’s sentence must send a message to deter other potential smugglers.
He said the court was being lenient in this case and gave the defendant a 75% discount, leaving a sentence of 12 months in prison.
She was also handed a further day, concurrent, for breaching a conditional discharge.
The court heard how half an hour before going to the prison, Thomason was seen on CCTV in the post office headquarters car park, buying something from a person in another vehicle.
In interview, Thomason initially denied being involved, saying her son had brought the drug with him for the visit, as he was worried about the officers searching his cell.
She also denied going to the post office, but later said she had gone there to buy tobacco.
Police were told that Thomason had been unusually quiet and had looked around a lot during the visit.
Defence advocate Candy Fletcher said her client had been under emotional pressure from her son to bring drugs and he had said things to her like ‘you don’t know what it’s like in here, everyone does it’.
He asked her repeatedly for weeks until she capitulated.
Her son had recently been beaten up and she had hated seeing him in pain, which resulted in her bringing in the drug.
A few days before the visit she got a call from a withheld number.
The person said they were a friend of the son and was dropping something off to Thomason for £30.
She had picked up the wrap, but had not known what was in it and how much there was.
