Woman, 38, takes drugs into jail after dealer threatened her children

manchestereveningnews.co.uk:

A mum-of-three took drugs into prison after her children’s lives were threatened by her dealer, a court heard. Stacey Burns, 38, of Gorton, was caught out by a sniffer dog when she turned up at HMP Risley in Warrington with a package of cocaine, heroin, ecstasy and ketamine.

A judge at Liverpool Crown Court told Burns on January 14 that he took into account that she had been coerced after her children had been threatened with harm over her £3,000 cocaine debt. READ MORE:Mum discharged from mental health ward days before death But Judge David Aubrey, QC, told her, “Regrettably this is an all too familiar account of that which occurs when vulnerable people are preyed upon by others.” He pointed out that she had been on licence from a jail sentence for robbery at the time and "the offences are so serious only an immediate custodial sentence can be justified." Judge Aubrey added: “Controlled drugs in Her Majesty’s prisons provide currency. "They are an instrument of power, an instrument of potential extortion and suppression and they fundamentally undermine discipline and good order which is essential to the running of a prison.” Burns, of Lakeside Close, Gorton, admitted four offences of conveying drugs into HMP Risley at Warrington.

She has been jailed for 20 months. Sarah Holt, prosecuting, told the court that Burns arrived at the prison on November 4, 2019 and while going through the entry procedures a sniffer dog indicated she was in possession of drugs and she was stopped from going in. “She denied being in possession of contraband but quickly admitted she had a package. "She produced from her trousers a small sausage-shaped package but refused to say who had given it to her because she was not ‘a grass’ “In later