A mother's love (From Warrington Guardian)

A mother's love

A MOTHER'S love for her jailed son has led to her own prison sentence.

Bronwyn Richards, aged 56, wept as she was jailed for six months after smuggling heroin with a street value of £3,500 into Risley Prison for her inmate son.

At Warrington Crown Court on Friday, Judge David Hale said: "You were doing this out of affection for your son, but you must have known you were running a great risk taking drugs into prison, although I do not believe you knew what the substance was."

Richards, from Wrexham, admitted the charge of supplying class A drugs when she visited her son, David, in September.

Matthew Dunsford, prosecuting, said Richards had been visited by a stranger and threatened that her son's life was in danger if she did not smuggle the drugs package into the class C prison.

He had been stabbed in prison three years earlier.

The court also heard that her son had sent a letter explaining that the drugs would have been used to clear debts he had accrued in prison.

Despite requests from her barrister, Lesley Carter, not to jail the defendant, who cares for her elderly mother, husband and granddaughter, Judge Hale said prison was the only option for this offence, which carries a sentence of up to five years.

"She was not motivated financially. She was motivated in an appeal in respect of her son," said Mrs Carter.

"Mrs Richards has lived a blameless and hardworking life for 56 years and this will have a devastating impact on her."