Ex-LFC youth player spared jail for dealing

HE NOW TEACHES KIDS TO AVOID CRIME

AFORMER England boxer and Liverpool FC youth player turned drug dealer has been spared jail after a court heard he gives talks urging North Wales schoolchildren to avoid crime.

Steven Ferguson, 26, had a promising future but a family breakdown led to drug addiction and offending.

He had already pleaded guilty to possession of heroin and crack cocaine with intent to supply, and being concerned in the supply of cannabis.

He also admitted damaging a skylight in a flat in an incident in Caernarfon.

But when he appeared at Caernarfon Court Crown on Thursday for sentencing, a judge decided it was an exceptional case and gave him 20-month jail terms for the Class A drugs offences, suspended for 21 months.

Prosecutor Richard Edwards told how Robert Parry rang police on Sunday, February 16, last year to say

Ferguson had damaged his flat in Bridge Street, Caernarfon.

Mr Parry said Ferguson had arrived at the flat with a woman called Natasha and a skylight in the kitchen had ended up being damaged by him.

Ferguson had left, but officers found he had gone to Costa Coffee in Caernarfon then taken a taxi to her home in Pwllheli.

There he barricaded himself into a bedroom. Police eventually forced their way in and he was arrested for causing criminal damage, said the prosecutor.

But during a search officers found 137 wraps of Class A drugs – 89 wraps of heroin and 48 wraps of crack cocaine – worth £1,370 along with £575 in cash in his underwear.

The police seized a mobile phone which was later found to contain messages about supplying cannabis.

Anna Pope, defending, said her client had been trying to pay off a drug debt.

She told how he had had a promising start in life. He had been on the books of Liverpool FC, aged seven to 14, and had represented England at boxing.

But his family “fell apart” aged 14. He suffered domestic violence, became homeless and went into foster care. Then he served in the Army for six years, aged 17 to 24, where he sadly cemented his drug and alcohol addictions. He was discharged in 2018.

Eventually, he owed £3,000 and drug dealers even threatened to set fire to his mother’s house.

However, he joined the Liverpoolbased Bridge House project, which provides homes for recovering addicts. Since then Ms Pope said Ferguson has been to schools teaching children not to follow his criminal ways.

The judge His Honour Judge Timothy Petts told Ferguson he is repaying his debt to society by visiting schools.

As well as the suspended jail terms, he ordered Ferguson, of Elsie Road, Anfield, Liverpool, to do 250 hours of unpaid work and 20 days of rehabilitation activity.