Woman guilty of passing drugs to Shropshire prison inmate

Factory worker Anne Marie Westwood, 40, was ruled to have given a package of prohibited items, including cannabis and anabolic steroids, to prisoner Osbourne Walton during a visit to the prison near Market Drayton.

She had denied three counts of conveying a listed item into or out of a prison but a jury at Shrewsbury Crown Court yesterday returned a unanimous guilty verdict after a two-day trial.

Recorder Martin Jackson said the mother-of-one is now likely to be facing a jail sentence herself.

Westwood, now of Leyland, Lancashire, travelled down from Salford, Manchester, on February 17 last year to visit Walton in prison - despite having only talked to him on the telephone previously.

She admitted lying about her identity with a faked bus pass claiming she was Colette White, but later maintained she had agreed to visit on behalf of the real Ms White, who was in a car outside on the day, worse for wear due to overindulgence of drink and drugs the night before.

They had made the fake ID before setting out from Salford, she said.

Once at the prison staff were alerted to keep an eye on her as she arrived late for visiting, with alcohol on her breath and seemed anxious, Mr Jackson said, but said staff had said the extra vigilance was as much because they feared she may have come to give Walton some bad news and he may react badly.

Westwood said she simply suffered from anxiety anyway and said she saw nothing odd about the long hug she gave Walton at the end of the visit, in which she raised both arms around his neck while he seemed to put something down his trousers, with his left arm out of view.

Walton was then chased and tackled by guards, throwing the package away from him.

Brendan Reedy, defending, said she admitted having been involved with drugs in the past, but "it isn't the case here that suspicion will do."

He said her person and her coat had both been searched on entry, and it was a "substantial package" Walton had thrown, not something that could be easily hidden.

"It wasn't found because it wasn't there," he said.

"At no stage did anyone see her remove that package. She's being looked at from both angles but nobody saw her with that package.

"How do you know he didn't have that package all along?"

He said Walton may have had the drugs on him as he didn't want to leave them in his cell where they could be found by other inmates or wardens.

But Andrew Wilkins, prosecuting, said: "This is an open and shut case.

"It's quite obvious he has just received it, and quite obvious the only place he could have received it from is her."

He said it was also "not simple" to fake ID and her explanation of why she did so was "obvious nonsense".

The case was adjourned for a probation report to be drawn up ahead of sentencing.