Drug dealer who supplied cocaine and heroin to Shrewsbury's homeless to fund own addiction is jailed
A man who dealt drugs to the homeless on the streets of Shrewsbury has been jailed.
Paul Watton, 38, of Lansdowne Road, Bayston Hill, was spotted by CCTV cameras and police talking to known drug users when he went out on the streets of Shrewsbury to sell the drugs.
When officers searched his home they found paraphernalia for cutting the drugs into individual wraps.
On Friday, at Shrewsbury Crown Court, Watton was jailed for three years and nine months.
He was told by Judge Peter Barrie he would have to serve half the sentence before being released on parole. He had admitted at an earlier hearing being concerned in the supply of crack cocaine and heroin in Shrewsbury between January 22 and February 25 last year. He also pleaded guilty to possession of crack cocaine and heroin with intent to supply.
Those offences took place on March 10 last year, also in Shrewsbury.
Judge Barrie was told that a police search of Watton’s house uncovered both heroin and crack cocaine along with snap bags and bicarbonate of soda commonly used to cut drugs into smaller wraps.
On March 10 last year Watton was seen in the company of men who were known to be sleeping rough. He was arrested and during a search several wraps of the class A drugs were found hidden on his person. Police also found £514 in cash.
Mr Robert Edwards, for Watton, said his client had been a drug user since the age of 14. By the time he was in his 20s he was using Class A drugs and this had continued through life.
“He turned to drugs to deal with the trauma of bullying when he was young,” Mr Edwards said. “He desperately wants to come off drugs and has done so intermittently throughout his life. However when something triggers his trauma he reaches for the phone to buy those drugs again.”
Mr Edwards said Watton had started handing out the drugs after a group of users got together to buy larger quantities because it was cheaper. The court heard that in 2019 Watton was given an 18 months sentence, suspended for two years being concerned in the supply of drugs. That order had expired before he was arrested for the current offences.
Judge Barrie told Watton that he accepted that he had been street dealing not to make money but to fund his own addiction. But he said he had also been adding to the addiction of those on the streets of Shrewsbury whom he supplied.
