Woman brought drugs into prison for boyfriend
A WOMAN brought a large package of cannabis into prison for her partner who was serving a sentence.
Katrina Pritchard was caught passing a package to her partner Michael Davies during a visit to HMP Parc, Bridgend, on December 20, 2019.
The 41-year-old was detained and the package was found to contain more than 20 grams of cannabis and a smaller quantity of tobacco, which could be separated into smaller deals for sale in prison.
A sentencing hearing held at Newport Crown Court on Wednesday heard Pritchard previously had a clean criminal record, and was under “an amount of pressure” to commit the offence.
Prosecutor Richard Ace said the incident occurred during a visit Pritchard made to her partner Michael Davies on December 20, 2019, who was serving a sentence at HMP Parc.
Mr Ace said security suspected Pritchard had passed a package to Mr Davies who was taken to a search area.
During a search of his person, an item fell out of his trousers.
Pritchard was detained and police officers were called to the prison.
Upon inspection, the package was found to contain 20.2 grams of cannabis and 11.3 grams of tobacco. Mr Ace said the package could have been separated into 25 prison deals.
Mr Ace said Pritchard was then taken to Bridgend custody suite and interviewed the following day.
She made full admission to taking the cannabis into the prison following a telephone conversation with her partner earlier in the week.
Pritchard, of Clos y Rhiw, Cardiff, pleaded guilty to a single count of conveying a list A article into a prison.
Harry Baker, defending, said his client deserved full credit for her early guilty pleas, which she indicated at the magistrates’ court.
He said Pritchard has no previous convictions and has waited a significant amount of time for this matter to come to court which has put an
“enormous strain” on her.
“There was an amount of pressure put on her do it,” Mr Baker said.
“She was not doing it for money and she has pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity.”
Mr Baker added that a pre-sentence report put Pritchard at a low risk of reoffending.
Passing sentence, Recorder Sean Bradley said: “This was a very unfortunate incident and you displayed very poor judgement in terms of what you did.”
Pritchard was sentenced to eight weeks in prison and must pay a statutory court surcharge.