Mother 'lured daughter to drugs'

Ghekis was found with heroin and cash when police arrived

A woman who claimed her own mother had sucked her into becoming a heroin addict and drug dealer has been jailed for almost two years.

Khaya Ghekis, 22, got involved in dealing after her mother and stepfather were jailed.

Police watching the family home in Perth in March last year found Ghekis with heroin with a street value of about £880 and more than £500 cash.

She almost died from an overdose in police custody four years ago.

At Perth Sheriff Court, Ghekis admitted being concerned in the supply of heroin at her mother's home in Viewfield Place, Perth.

'Considerable pressure'

Solicitor Linda Clark, defending, said: "People coming to the house were drug users and she was introduced to that culture. Both her mother and her partner were sentenced to a period of imprisonment.

"After that people would still come to the house looking for her mother. For a while she was able to stave them off and not get involved in either the purchase or sale of those items.

"On this occasion, under considerable pressure, she agreed to hand over items that had been left by one party to be passed on to another."

Fiscal depute Alan Kempton told the court police had been watching the home of Karen and James Townsley for some time.

He said they saw a well-known drug addict arrive and found him in the process of being given heroin worth £880 by Ghekis in the common close.

Sheriff Michael Fletcher told Ghekis, from Magpie Way, Perth, he had no option but to send her to jail and she was locked up for a total of one year, 11 months and 10 days.

In 2005, Ghekis spent a fortnight in a coma after being found collapsed from a drug overdose taken while she was being held in custody at Perth Police HQ.

Her friend Kelly Ann Conroy was subsequently found to have smuggled heroin with a street value of about £5,000 into the police station and was jailed for one year and eight months.