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Irish Mirror
Irish Mirror
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Adam Everett & Michelle Cullen

Woman who stashed drug dealing boyfriend's heroin and crack cocaine in vagina walks free from court

A woman who stashed her drug dealing boyfriend's heroin and crack cocaine in her vagina has walked free from court.

Brooke Morgan said she agreed to stash her then boyfriend Ryan Leonard's drugs after being subjected to domestic violence.

The illicit substances were also kept at her Kensington flat, but the court found the 30-year-old had "performed a limited function under duress".

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Liverpool Crown Court heard that police on patrol on Oxton Road in Birkenhead at around 3.30pm on June 8 spotted Morgan's wanted partner "acting suspiciously around a group of drug users", reports the Liverpool Echo.

Leonard was found in possession of £675 (€769) in cash when officers searched him.

Police also noticed Morgan sitting nearby in the driver's seat of a white Fiat 500, "appearing very nervous".

They noted a smell of cannabis and detained her too.

She had a "cheap Nokia mobile phone sticking out of her handbag", and once taken into custody, a plastic bag secreted inside her was found to contain 71 wraps of crack cocaine and 17 of heroin.

Her flat on Albany Road was raided later that day.

A search revealed a plastic box in the living room which contained another 17 wraps of heroin, 162 deals of high-purity crack cocaine and eight one-ounce packets of heroin, with a combined street value in the tens of thousands of pounds.

Also seized was a set of scales and a Stanley knife, while a hold-all beside the box was found to be holding a machete.

Traces of Leonard's DNA were found on the packages, although Morgan had not handled them and said she was unaware that he had stashed the illicit substances in her home.

£1,200 (€1,367) in cash was also found in a purse in her bedroom wardrobe.

Analysis of the seized device revealed it had been used by the "Gin Bob" county lines ring and had been sending out flare messages advertising drugs for sale since late April.

A total of "24,000 separate communications" had been made, sometimes up to 230 per day. Tom Challinor, prosecuting, described the outfit as engaging in "persistent, regular, professional drug dealing" - adding: "It is a busy line, and it has been doing a great deal of business."

Brooke, who has one previous conviction in 2005, was described as having "performed a limited function under duress".

Her defence counsel Julian Nutter stated that she is 11 weeks pregnant and has previously acted as a carer for mum and grandma, as well as volunteering with charities.

He said: "The drugs were effectively put in her hands by somebody who must have been particularly intimidating. There are elements of this which amount to being abusive.

"In my submission, she has been through quite enough. She has had this hanging over her head, and it has driven her to a state of hysteria - I ask for one last chance."

Brooke pleaded guilty to being concerned in the supply of cocaine and heroin, possession of cannabis and money laundering and was handed a 24-month imprisonment suspended for two years. She was also told to complete 150 hours of unpaid work and a rehabilitation activity requirement and was told to pay a victim surcharge.

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