Nine years jail for supplying heroin and crack

Emma Kelly, formerly of Eastbourne in Sussex, has been sentenced to nine years in jail after admitting supplying heroin and crack cocaine to her son since he was nine years old.

Kelly, 31, admitted at Hove Crown Court to supplying the drugs between August 2002 and May 2005. Judge Anthony Niblett said it was an act of betrayal, 'On 5 May 2005 you went to his school and you supplied him there with a wrap of heroin. This was, in my assessment, an act of pure wickedness. You offered no explanation or excuse for it, and there can be none.'

Kelly's sentence of nine years in total for supplying Class A drugs includes a five-year term for child cruelty to be served concurrently. She was also sentenced to two concurrent six-years terms for supplying her son with drugs and a further three years, to be served consecutively, for supplying him with heroin when he was in foster care.

The court heard from prosecutor Ibitayo Adebayo that Kelly drove her son round Sussex and London in search of drugs and that the offences only came to light when the pair were arrested on suspicion of shoplifting. Police contacted a drugs referral worker who suggested the boy was going through withdrawal systems.

Kelly's solicitor said her client became dependent on drugs following the death of her partner ten years ago.

East Sussex Social Services came in for criticism from the Judge who said that there might have been no intervention but for the arrest and this was despite a social services case conference about the boy being held in 2004.

The boy, who is now 12, is in foster care and back at school.

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