JAILED: Evil pair who used children to sell drugs
A DRUG dealer who used children as young as 13 to peddle drugs between Greater Manchester and Blackpool has been locked up.
Ryan Wall recruited three vulnerable children aged 13, 15 and 16 to sell crack cocaine and heroin in Blackpool.
His co-conspirator, Christopher Thornton, also used a child as a runner to peddle Class A drugs and had his own side operation selling from a separate phone line.
Both men admitted modern slavery offences after exploiting the children for their drugs enterprise.
One teenager was trafficked from Tameside up to the resort town by Claire Daniels - who ferried them to and fro in her Audi A1.
Wall, 24, controlled a telephone line known as the ‘Bones’ line to arrange drug deals.
The line is said to have netted £87,540 over the course of the two-month conspiracy. Another phone line - known as the ‘Trigga’ line - was run separately by Thornton, 20, and netted an estimated £95,700 over two months.
The gang were also helped by heroin addict Leigh Sledden, 38, who let children controlled by Wall stay at his Blackpool home.
The case was summed up by Judge Paul Lawton, who told Minshull Street
Crown Court: “The children were effectively puppets”.
Wall of Lakenheath Road, Liverpool, and Thornton, 20, of Barlow Road, Dukinfield, were yesterday jailed for nine years and eight years respectively after also admitting conspiracy to supply Class A drugs.
Daniels, 36, of Ashton Hill Lane, Droylsden, admitted ferrying a child to and from Tameside and Blackpool, and conspiracy to supply Class A drugs.
But she was spared jail by Judge Lawton, who was convinced her involvement was caused by a ‘desperation’ for money.
Sledden also walked free from court after admitting participating in the activities of an organised crime group.
The judge said both Daniels and Sledden had been used by Wall and Thornton.
Daniels was sentenced to two years, suspended for two years and ordered to carry out 180 hours of unpaid work.
Sledden, of Claremont Court, Blackpool, was given a two-year suspended prison sentence.
Olivia Beesley, for Wall, said the father-of-two suffers with ADHD and left school at the age of 13.
Keith Harrison, for Thornton, said he had only been involved with one youth who had not been ‘corrupted’ by the defendant. Mr Harrison also advocated for Sledden, who he said “is remorseful in the extreme.”