A 29-year-old woman who smuggled cannabis into HMP La Moye has been spared prison because of her two young children.
Deputy Bailiff Robert MacRae told Sophie Lusk that smuggling drugs into jail normally carried an automatic custodial sentence.
However, she was instead sentenced to 240 hours of community service.
The Deputy Bailiff said the Jurats in the Royal Court accepted that the welfare of her children could be harmed if she were jailed, and told Lusk: “Were it not for this, you would be starting an 18-month prison sentence.”
The court heard that Lusk brought the cannabis to La Moye in October 2022.
She gave it to her former partner Joshua O’Brien, who was in prison for previous drug offences.
The court heard that CCTV footage from the prison visiting room shows Lusk passing food items in a packet to O’Brien.
O’Brien is seen eating from the packets, before placing something in the waistband of his trousers and adjusting his top.
O’Brien was due to have been sentenced by the Royal Court at the same time as Lusk.
But he disputed the amount of drugs the prosecution said he had in his possession, so the case has been postponed until a Newton hearing takes place.
Newton hearings are held to allow each side in a case to present conflicting accounts of an offence. Jurats then have to decide which account to accept before sentencing.
Lusk admitted taking the drugs into La Moye.
The court heard that she had 42 previous convictions but Advocate Ian Jones, defending, pointed out that her last offence was a number of years ago.
The Deputy Bailiff said Lusk deserved little credit for her guilty plea, as it was entered only just before a trial was due to begin.
“There is a powerful public interest in imposing a significant deterrent sentence,” he said.
“You could have had no complaint were the court to have imposed a custodial sentence.”
Jurats Ramsden, Ronge, Le Heuzé, Opferman and Gardener were sitting.