A “vulnerable” mum and her daughter have been spared jail for their part in drug offences after police say they were threatened into holding onto drugs for someone else. Abigail and Joanne Blackwell, 28 and 52 respectively, appeared at Manchester Crown Court on Minshull Street on Thursday morning, August 25, to face charges for drug offences dating back as far as December 2018.
Antony Longworth, prosecuting, told the court that the offences had first come to light when police visited Joanne’s home in Rochdale on Christmas Eve, 2018, when they found a small amount of cocaine, three bags of cannabis, and a small but “sophisticated” grow operation for cannabis in the upstairs bedroom.
Both Joanne and Abigail were charged with the production of cannabis in relation to the ten plants being grown in the upstairs of the home, which were all for Joanne’s personal use, with Joanne also charged with possession of cannabis and possession with intent to supply cocaine. The pair pleaded guilty to all the charges.
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Officers visited the house again almost a year later, on November 9 2019, and found four more bags of cocaine, charging Joanne with possession of cocaine. However, in what His Honour Judge Mark Savill described as “very unusual”, the prosecution, defence, and police all agreed that Joanne had fallen victim to exploitation of her vulnerable state, being threatened and coerced into holding onto the cocaine for someone in order to then supply it back to him.
The cannabis was for her own consumption, as she self-medicated with the substance. Neil Ronan, defending Joanne, said she has now switched the cannabis for anti-depressants and was engaging with her GP for help with her substance use. Mr Ronan urged for leniency for his client due to the length of time since the offence, her vulnerabilities, and her guilty pleas.
He also asked Judge Savill to avoid implementing periods of unpaid work on his client, whom he described as a woman in “desperate need of some assistance”, as she struggled with several medical conditions, and had issues leaving her house after a particularly vicious assault with a baseball bat.
Richard Brigden, defending Abigail, asked Judge Savill to consider implementing a conditional discharge on his client, as she had no money to pay the usual fine handed out to people convicted of similar crimes to hers due to her energy bills doubling in price. He said her responsibility to her three children often meant she was left with “pennies” at the end of the month.
The pair have now moved away from their previous home to an address in Middleton, which was not given in court to protect the pair, with Joanne trying to find her own home. They are both of previously good character, with no previous convictions. Abigail had social services investigate after she came to the attention of the police, but they have stated they have no ongoing concerns about the care of her children. Neither woman made any financial gains through the operation.
Judge Savill noted that he’d observed Joanne to be “genuinely distressed” at several points throughout the case’s time in the courts, and that this was a truly “exceptional” case as he would normally send anyone involved with class A drugs to prison.
Sentencing Joanne to a nine month sentence of imprisonment, suspended for 12 months, and Abigail to a conditional discharge pending she remains out of trouble for the next two years, Judge Savill said he believed the two had “learned your lesson” and were unlikely to be back before the courts again in the future.
He said: “This is a very unusual and exceptional case, particularly for you Joanne Blackwell, and for that reason I depart from what would ordinarily be an inevitable prison sentence. Joanne I’m not going to go into details but I’m wholly satisfied that you are a very troubled individual through no fault of your own, you’re a 52-year-old woman who is extremely vulnerable. Your vulnerability led to this offending."
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