A PREGNANT woman who hid drugs in her bra when she visited her partner in prison has walked free from court.

Claire Robson was told by a judge yesterday that a jail sentence would usually be passed on anyone in her position.

But Judge Peter Bowers said he accepted Robson was not planning to pass on the Subutex tablets to her boyfriend.

Teesside Crown Court heard that the 35-year-old needed the heroin substitute pills for herself because of past problems.

Her barrister, Yvonne Taylor, said Robson was afraid to leave her home in Stockton after being viciously attacked.

She said the mother-of-four regularly took large amounts of Subutex and diazepam to help her cope with panic attacks.

Robson should have left the pills in a locker during the prison visit, but hid them in her clothing, said Miss Taylor.

The court heard that the three tablets would have been worth up to £400 each on the black market behind bars.

Robson swallowed two of the pills when she was challenged by staff and the third was found inside her bra.

David Crook, prosecuting, told the court that she was taken straight to hospital for checks because she was expecting.

Robson, of Hurworth Close, Stockton, admitted possessing Class C drugs at Holme House Prison in July last year.

She was given a four-month jail sentence, suspended for 12 months, with Probation Service supervision.

Judge Bowers told her: “The message has to be made clear that, usually, this will merit imprisonment.

“Anyone visiting prisons needs to know that there are articles you are not allowed to take in – whether or not you intend to pass them on to an inmate.

“Even taking things like a mobile phone, a Sim card or drugs into prison, means you are committing an offence punishable with up to ten years, regardless of your intention,.”

Miss Taylor said: “She bitterly regrets going in with them – a sense of naivety – but felt she needed the support.”