Sian Baber

Sian Baber, of St Judes, concealed the drug in her body after being pressurised by her drug addict boyfriend who was serving time for theft, a court has heard.<br />Now 21-year-old Baber is behind bars herself after being sentenced to four years for attempting to smuggle heroin and cannabis into the Princetown jail.<br />Baber's parents, who are both serving magistrates, issued a statement through a family member from their semi-detached home in Helston last night.<br />It said: "She regrets what she has done and she will learn from her mistakes."<br />Recorder Leslie Blohm, sitting at Plymouth Crown Court yesterday, told Baber: "Drugs in prison do a great deal of damage to people and discipline.<br />"They undermine and corrupt, and your drugs would have gone a long way."<br />The court heard that Baber had enjoyed a privileged upbringing, but her downfall came when she moved to Plymouth. She was living at Beaumont Road, St Judes, at the time of the offence last year.<br />Malcolm Clark, defending, said she had had physically abusive and controlling partners, and things went downhill when she met drug addict David Dugdale and started taking drugs herself.<br />He was eventually jailed for stealing to feed his habit, but pressurised her to smuggle heroin and cannabis into Dartmoor for him.<br />She concealed two grammes of heroin, 12 grammes of cannabis resin and two grammes of herbal cannabis in her body, but it was found in a search at the prison.<br />Baber denied one charge of possessing a Class A drug with intent to supply and two charges of possessing a Class C drug with intent to supply.<br />She was tried on January 9 at Plymouth Crown Court, her defence being that she was not a drug dealer, was not profiting from selling drugs and had acted under duress and threats from her boyfriend.<br />Mr Clark told the court that Baber had now matured, was living back home with her parents and off illicit drugs.<br />She wanted to go to college and back into care work, he said.<br />But Mr Blohm told Baber the offences were serious and that bringing drugs into prison undermined inmates who were trying to give them up.<br />He said David Dugdale had been beaten up in jail, presumably because Baber had failed in her mission, adding: "This illustrates the corrosive effects of drug use in prison.<br />"You acted out of loyalty to your boyfriend and with a degree of naivety, but you didn't give much thought to the consequences.<br />"Your parents are devastated by the hell into which you have fallen, and one would have a heart of stone not to sympathise with them, but you have brought this on yourself."<br />Baber's parents, who live in Helston, West Cornwall, were not in court to see their daughter jailed for a total of four years.<br />Dugdale, who is currently serving time at a different prison, initially agreed to speak in support of Baber in court, but changed his mind.

Sian Baber

Sian Baber, of St Judes, concealed the drug in her body after being pressurised by her drug addict boyfriend who was serving time for theft,...

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