Drug smuggling mum joins son in jail

Friday 14 June 2019

Hiding drugs in her mouth so she could give them to her son during a visit means Katy Thomason is now serving her own prison sentence.

The 49-year-old mum of two was visiting her son, James, last March when she decided to hide a small quantity of Buprenorphine inside her mouth.

The Royal Court yesterday heard how Thomason had been under a lot of pressure from her son to take him drugs during his own prison sentence at Les Nicolles. 

Although Thomason initially refused to smuggle an illegal substance into the prison, she eventually agreed and met a third party shortly before she and her daughter visited her son in prison. 

During that visit, and unknown to her daughter, Thomason had a few tablets and some crushed powder - later confirmed to be 'subotex' - hidden inside her mouth. While her two children sat and ate a bag of crisps each, Thomason removed the clingfilm wrapped package from her mouth, put her hand inside her son's bag of crisps and then returned her hand to her lap. 

The Royal Court was shown CCTV of the moment Thomason and her son were caught. It was still some months later before Thomason changed her plea from not guilty to guilty.

In mitigation, Thomason's defence lawyer explained her situation, and how she had been under immense pressure from her son to take him illegal drugs into the prison. She resisted but reached "the end of her tether" and eventually agreed. 

The court also heard how Thomason has been seriously ill this year and only a few weeks ago was in a critical condition in hospital. She has also suffered from mental ill health, which Judge Russell Finch said was taken into consideration when sentencing her as the court gave her a substantial discount on her prison term. 

In sentencing her, Judge Finch also acknowledged she had now pleaded guilty to the charges she faced, but said she had initially "lied your head off".

He said the court was hearing too many cases involving Class C drugs and that other people should known the most serious penalties apply for those smuggling illegal substances into the prison.

Judge Finch then sentenced Thomason to a year behind bars.

Thomason was said to have had six 'subotex' tablets in her mouth along with 0.18g of white powder, with a street value of up to £600. Only four tablets were presented to the court as evidence alongside the powder, with a total street value of £400 and the court sentenced Thomason on that basis. 

Pictured top: Les Nicolles Prison.