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Liverpool Echo
Liverpool Echo
National
Annie Owen & Abigail Nicholson

Gang drove schoolboy, 14, from home to deal drugs

A gang drove a 14-year-old teenager from his home to deal drugs for them.

The teen, who was under the care of social services at the time, was transported from Liverpool to Rhyl and began dealing class A drugs for a gang. The teen was eventually arrested and Lakeisha Ann Evans appeared at Caernarfon Crown Court on Tuesday, October 25, for driving the youngster from Liverpool to North Wales.

The 25-year-old had admitted assisting an organised crime group. The court heard the youngster was driven to North Wales by Evans in February, 2021, NorthWalesLive reports.

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One of the members of the gang was Evans' cousin and convicted drug dealer Callum Wright, who had asked the defendant to collect the boy.

Duncan Bould, prosecuting, said Evans collected the teen from Liverpool and brought him to North Wales, where he was directed to sell drugs by gang members but was arrested after supplying drugs to an undercover police officer.

The court heard the teen was found in possession of 111 knotted packages of heroin and 34 packages of crack cocaine. Evans was arrested in February 2022, initially admitting that she collected the boy but denying any knowledge of criminal activity.

She has since pleaded guilty to assisting an organised crime group and was today handed a 12 month suspended sentence by Her Honour Judge Nicola Saffman. Addressing Evans, Judge Saffman said: "I am going to suspend the sentence because in my judgement you are a person who is capable of rehabilitation.

"This is an isolated incident, borne out of the fact that you feel unable to stand up to people who are asking you to do things on their behalf, so you find it difficult to say no to people." Judge Saffman ordered Evans to attend 15 rehabilitation sessions with the Probation Service, telling her: "These will build your resilience so that you can push back when others who have stronger personalities than you press you to do things which you're not comfortable with.

"It's clear to me from what you've said within the interview that you didn't want to go along with what was happening." She added: "It's clear from your prepared statement that you weren't keen on getting involved in any event but you still did that because of your inability to say no because of your lack of resilience and fortitude at that stage.

"That is something which needs to be rectified whilst you're still young enough to build on that." Evans will also pay a statutory victim surcharge of £156."

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