Woman used bra to smuggle drugs into prison

Security officers at Holme House Prison, in Stockton, caught Tracey McCorry trying to smuggle packages of heroin, cocaine, and ecstasy, along with class C heroin treatment drug subutex, into the prison in her bra.

Experts say the haul would have been worth around £1,165 in prison, where drugs are worth more than on the street.

Teesside Crown Court heard McCorry had admitted going to the prison in order to supply drugs to her partner. She had arranged to do so by telephone.

Patricia Mancina, prosecuting, told the court security stopped McCorry and asked her if she was in possession of any drugs, whereby she removed four packages from her bra. She told officers dealing with her they all contained subutex.

However, McCorry was actually carrying 1.51 grams of heroin, 0.38 grams of cocaine, 0.2 grams of ecstasy and 21 and a half subutex tablets.

The court heard McCorry had believed all the packages to contain subutex and had thought her partner would get half while the rest would be distributed within the prison.

In police interview, she also volunteered that she had taken packages into the prison on another occasion some months earlier.

Duncan McReddie, mitigating, asked the judge to take into account her early guilty plea and her full and frank admissions to police.

He said this case was the first time she had appeared in court and this showed the defendant knew the difference between right and wrong.

"This woman has been enmeshed in an all-too familiar cycle of addiction and poverty and further addiction, without resorting to crime to fund her habit," he said.

McCorry, 38, of Skelton Court, Guisborough, pleaded guilty to three counts of possessing class A drugs with intent to supply, and one count of possessing class C drugs with intent to supply.

She was sentenced to 30 months in prison.

Judge Les Spittle told McCorry: "You were prepared to take drugs into prison and you didn't care what you were taking in."