Gym shorts used to smuggle drugs

The court heard Crone was taken advantage of by her boyfriend

A 48-year-old woman, besotted with a prisoner, has been jailed for 18 months for smuggling heroin in his gym shorts.

Denise Crone tied up a bag of the drug and sewed it to the cord before posting it to Kenny McLaren in Perth Prison.

Perth Sheriff Court heard that it was the second time in a month Crone, from Arbroath, had made a bungled attempt to pass heroin to her boyfriend.

In the first incident she had put the drugs in her mouth so she could pass them to McLaren in a kiss.

Crone admitted being concerned in the supply of heroin at Perth Prison on 2 December 2006 and supplying the drug in a package from her home during early January 2007.

She had been on bail when she sent the shorts, having been arrested when she was caught with heroin in her mouth during a previous pre-arranged visit.

'Exploited her'

Solicitor Paul Ralph, defending, said: "I am afraid it is a very sad tale. She is a 48-year-old lady who has had little involvement with the criminal justice system.

"She became involved with this man and he promised her all manner of things and a future together. He seems to have taken advantage of the situation.

"He seems to have managed to resist any commitment to her while convincing her he had strong feelings for her. He has exploited her in the extreme.

"He was remanded and he started to up the ante and request that she help him out by supplying drugs. She was threatened by his acquaintances."

Mr Ralph said Crone had been a working woman and a productive member of society but had now been cut off by her own family.

Sheriff Lindsay Foulis told Crone her offences had been exacerbated by the fact she committed both within a very short time period.

He noted that she was already aware she was in trouble, and on bail, when she tried to post the shorts to her lover.