A heavily-pregnant woman claimed to have been exploited by a man called Dean, who borrowed her phone to run a County Lines drug line from her home.
Sophia Ewers claimed that she had kicked mysterious ‘Dean’ out of her Greater Leys house just days before the police raided in late November last year after a customer came to the home asking for drugs on credit.
The 30-year-old, who was then five months pregnant, told Recorder John Bate-Williams at Oxford Crown Court on Monday (March 13) that she knew ‘Dean’ was dealing drugs. “I tried to turn a blind eye to it; [a] what I don’t see, I don’t know kind of thing,” she added.
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She admitted being concerned in the supply of heroin and crack cocaine between March and November last year.
But in a basis of plea, she claimed to have been ‘exploited’ by the man, who she had met at an addiction support service and who at that point she had not named.
It was suggested on her behalf that she was vulnerable and her home had been used by the operator of the drugs line, which police had named the ‘Blue’ line.
Ewers told the judge that ‘Dean’ had borrowed her phone, even taking it out of the house for short periods if he was popping to the shops. She was herself in bed with morning sickness for some of the time, she said.
Asked whether ‘Dean’ had ever threatened her or been aggressive, she said he had not – but said she had ‘felt sorry’ for him.
It was suggested on her behalf that she had turned a blind eye to her phone being used to send out bulk advertising messages offering drugs.
But the judge rejected her account that she had been playing a lesser role in the supply of class A drugs, having heard witness evidence from the defendant, an expert drugs officer from the Metropolitan Police and the Thames Valley detective responsible for building the case against Ewers.
He said: “The question boils down to this: if not the defendant, who?” He noted that Ewers had not named ‘Dean’ in her police interview or in the basis of plea and suggested her account defied sense.
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“Dealing in drugs, especially class A drugs, is a very serious offence witnessed by the courts day by day by day, as we see good and useful lives ruined,” the judge said, concluding that Ewers had played a significant role in the supply of heroin and crack cocaine for the ‘Blue’ drugs line.
He adjourned sentencing until March 24 for the completion of a pre-sentence report. The judge was told that the probation service had already spoken to the defendant but that the completed report was ‘lost’ as a result of ‘some sort of technical error’.
Ewers, of Shepherds Hill, Oxford, was remanded in custody.
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