Young mum forced to smuggle ecstasy

A YOUNG mother of three from Merseyside who said she was “coerced” by her boyfriend into smuggling almost 200 ecstasy tablets into Shetland on the ferry has been sent to prison for 18 months.

Last week 24 year old Catherine Mary Trevor, whose address was given as Grampian Prison but originally comes from Birkenhead, pled guilty to being concerned in the supply of the class A drug.

Police, acting on a tip off, arrested Trevor as she disembarked the NorthLink ferry at Lerwick’s Holmsgarth terminal on 9 September.

When they searched her officers found 184 ecstasy tablets worth between £1,840 and £2,760, two mobile phones and £230 in cash.

Procurator fiscal Duncan Mackenzie said Trevor, who was travelling with her boyfriend, was “physically shaking and close to tears” when she was detained by police.

On Thursday Sheriff Philip Mann noted a background report in which Trevor claimed she was “coerced” into carrying the drugs by her partner’s “persistence”.

“She is certainly not a significant figure in the supply chain – she is at the lowest level,” Mackenzie said.

Defence agent Alan Findlay said his client was unaware her boyfriend took drugs from Merseyside to Shetland and that he only asked her to carry the ecstasy off the ferry from Aberdeen.

“It may be assumed that he was the main man,” Findlay added, before highlighting Trevor’s “naivety”.

The sheriff accepted that Trevor may have been “vulnerable and put-upon” by her partner, noting that she had three young children who will be affected by a lengthy custodial sentence.

However he referred to a previous conviction for a similar offence and concluded “sympathy can only go so far”.

Trevor left the court in tears after she was jailed for 18 months, which will be backdated until 10 September when she first appeared from custody at the court.