Heroin courier had camo combat knife

ARUNCORN teen hoodlum caught delivering heroin and who was identified over a charge of grievous bodily harm ( GBH) in Runcorn because of his supposed resemblance to ‘Shaggy from Scooby-Doo’ has been spared prison after a judge gave him a ‘last chance’ to turn away from crime.

Callum Foran, 18, of Gaunts Way, Hallwood Park, brought a shoulder bag with him to Chester Crown Court last Thursday as he faced sentencing.

The teenager had pleaded guilty to possession with intent to supply heroin, GBH, having a combat knife in public and possessing cannabis.

John Oates, prosecuting, said three of the offences came about at 4.20pm on Wednesday, January 31, when a police patrol on Halton Brook Avenue spotted a figure in dark clothes dart across the road and begin ‘fumbling in his pockets and looking across the road suspiciously’.

One officer exited the car and spotted three males in dark clothes who ‘seemed to be passing things between them’.

The police constable hid and heard one of them approaching so he stepped out and opened his coat to reveal his police uniform.

When he called for them to stop they ran off, but he threatened to use his Taser and Foran stopped, spitting out a spliff he was smoking as he was bundled to the ground.

The officer searched Foran and found heroin divided into eight deals worth £10 each and weighing about 0.8 grams, a camouflage-design combat knife, three snap bags of personal use cannabis and £50 cash.

In interview he said he had been asked to deliver some drugs and had been bringing back the leftovers when he was arrested.

Foran said he had been in debt and had been asked to complete the task instead.

His arrest came while he was on bail for charges of GBH and attempted robbery, relating to an incident in Castlefields on November 9 while he was 17 years old.

Foran admitted GBH but claimed self-defence.

He was cleared of attempted robbery at trial alongside co-defendants Louis Maddock, 24, of no fixed abode, and Jordan Johnson, 18, of no fixed abode, both also acquitted in July.

Gareth Bellis, defence counsel, said Foran had lashed out at complainant John Chase in ‘excessive self defence’.

The trial heard the punch had been in response to an acquaintance of Mr Chase’s turning aggressive.

Foran had been identified as being involved after a witness said she had ‘a good look’ at Foran, remarking that she ‘would compare him to Shaggy from Scooby-Doo’.

Mr Chase suffered a fractured eye socket due to the force of Foran’s punch, which was felt like being hit with ‘a brick’.

Discussing the heroin find on January 31, defence counsel Mr Bellis said Foran had been smoking cannabis and ‘wasn’t thinking straight’ when he made the ‘catastrophic error in judgment’ in agreeing to deliver the heroin on what was the only ‘run’ he did.

He pleaded mitigation for Foran’s guilty pleas, his client having been a juvenile at the time of the GBH.

Mr Bellis said his client was also of previous good character, his only conviction being for a minor drug matter at Liverpool Magistrates Court in May 2017, and argued that ‘His Honour could take a step back from immediate custody’ in light of a probation officer’s recommendations that the late teens are when perpetrators are most likely to turn away from crime.

He said a pre-sentence report suggested that steps to assist Foran’s education would ‘assist the public in the long term’.

Foran had also had an unsettled couple of years, having been ejected from his mother’s home and ending up sleeping on the couch at his grandmother and father’s home before having to leave again.

Recorder Laprell said Foran’s offending while on bail was an aggravating feature but he held back from sending the teenager down.

He sentenced him to a total of two years in prison, suspended for two years, with a 20-day rehabilitation order, 200 hours unpaid work and the £50 seized to be paid to Mr Chase in compensation, adding that no more could be awarded because of Foran’s lack of assets.

The judge said Foran had shown no premeditation in punching Mr Chase, and that in the drug matter he had a ‘lesser role’, but he branded the defendant’s combat knife ‘a lethal weapon if used in a lethal way’.

He said he was giving Foran a ‘very last chance’.

Recorder Laprell said: “I’m going to suspend the sentence but I want you to understand this, that the sentence is going to be left to hang over you as long as I’m going to allow it, that you will be liable to have all or part of it imposed, even for simple cannabis.

“I’m adopting a last chance approach with you by suspending the sentence, I could very easily justify you going into immediate custody.

“Parts of the report have tipped the balance in favour of suspending it.”