Ice-trafficking mum’s jail term deemed too harsh on appeal

A YOUNG mother jailed for her role in a high-level trafficking ring pushing ice in Bowen has had her penalty reduced.

Melissa Jane Mclean was handed a five-year jail term with parole eligibility in December 2021 at 18 months after she was picked up during a police sting targeting methylamphetamines in the Whitsundays.

But Supreme Court Justice Walter Sofronoff has determined the penalty was “too high” and there was “an inadequate amelioration” for her terrible personal circumstances at the time.

A Court of Appeal judgment stated Mclean was raised by a violent, alcoholic mother and at 16 years old she met her father, who was also a drunk.

She left home and began to fend for herself, leaving school after Year 10 and first working at a petrol station before securing a job at the mines in Central Queensland, when she began taking care of her ailing paternal grandmother. She also took up with older men.

“Her father took the grandmother’s pension money for himself but, nevertheless, (Mclean) managed to support her grandmother,” Justice Sofronoff said.

“This was a devastating period for (Mclean).”

Her sister died from a drug overdose, her brother was confined to a wheelchair after a car crash, a cousin tried to take her own life and her grandmother died from cancer.

Justice Sofronoff said during this “awful period” she met a man named Walker – her coaccused in the offending – who introduced her to ice.

He was a dealer and she began to work for him. Her offending spanned from November 20, 2018 to December 2, 2019 and involved trafficking ice at Bowen, possessing ice at Cannonvale and aggravated possession of ice and cash at Sarina.

“Walker was not just a drug dealer. He was abusive to (Mclean) physically,” Justice Sofronoff said.

The judgment revealed he was abusive in other ways as well via threatening phone calls and a threatening letter demanding to know why she applied for bail without his permission.

Justice

Mclean’s high.

The five-year jail term was set aside.

Instead she was sentenced to four years’ imprisonment to be suspended after serving 12 months.

Sofronoff found penalty was too