Grangetown mum who took drugs into prison was 'frightened woman doing something that frightened her'

A troubled mum who took drugs into prison for her son has avoided being locked up herself.

Amanda Keenan, 43, took Class C drugs into the jail at Holme House in a “misguided” effort to help her son, who was serving time for assault.

She was caught at the prison with 63 tablets of the heroin treatment drug Subutex and 68 diazepam tablets on July 14 last year.

Graham Brown, defending her at Teesside Crown Court, said: “This was a frightened woman doing something that frightened her.

“It was against her better judgment, that her internal desires had overridden.”

Keenan, of Cresswell Road, Grangetown, pleaded guilty to conveying the drugs into the prison. She had no previous convictions.

Mr Brown said she was the sort of person you would not expect “in a month of Sundays” to get involved in such criminal activity.

He said she did not act in a cold, calculated way or “embark on a course or programme of criminality”.

She got “out of her depth” through a “toxic combination” of circumstances and a background fraught with problems including depression.

He said she had otherwise been “an entirely proper member of our society” and provided stability for her three children.

Mr Brown said it was an exceptional case and Keenan would benefit from a suspended sentence.

Judge John Walford said a letter from Keenan told of “a catalogue of unhappy events with you and your family in recent times”.

He told her: “Those who are caught introducing substances like this into prison must expect a prison sentence.

“There’s no doubt about that because this is currency. These are items which disrupt the life of prison, inevitably, and cause all sorts of problems.

“That’s why the courts view these offences seriously.

“There has to be a custodial sentence, but I say immediately that I’m not going to impose an immediate custodial sentence today.

“I do take account of the misguided thinking that you applied in committing this offence.

“You might have been better concentrating your efforts on diverting your son away from activity which led him to be convicted and go to prison, rather than committing this sort of serious offence and trying misguidedly to help him.

“I hope that’s something you’ll think about in the future.

“For the moment I’m prepared to treat this offence as a one-off.”

He gave her a six-month prison sentence suspended for two years with 18 months’ supervision and a thinking skills programme.

Keenan thanked the judge as she was released from the dock.