Drugs found in charity shop jeans not mine, mum claims

A MUM visiting her son in jail was caught with drugs in her pocket – but claimed they weren’t hers and she had bought the jeans from a charity shop the day before, a court heard.

A jury at Cardiff Crown Court heard Tracey Latham, 52, is alleged to have been found with a plastic bag of amphetamine in her pocket.

She was attending the visitor centre of HMP Prison Parc in Bridgend with her son Dane, 18, to visit her other son Che on September 7 last year.

Latham said that she had been visiting her son every week for 15 months and was always searched before entering.

Prosecutor Julian Greenwood said: “An officer found and extracted an item from the right-hand front pocket of Miss Latham’s jeans.

“That turned out to be Class B amphetamine.”

Mr Greenwood added that there was no suggestion Latham was transferring the drugs to her son.

Witness Lisa Howe, the prison guard who searched Latham, said: “In the top pocket there was a little white packet of powder.

“When I put my finger in the pocket it flipped out.

“She said to me: ‘I have only just bought these trousers, they came from a charity shop yesterday.’ She said that she didn’t know what it was.”

Latham, of York Place, Barry, denies the charge of conveying a listed item into a prison.

The trial continues.