09/10/2007 00:00:00
UK: Teaching assistant who gave her children cannabis spared jail
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A teaching assistant who supplied cannabis to her two children to stop
them visiting street dealers has been spared jail.
Nicola Cooper, 43, intervened when she learned her teenage son and
daughter had experimented with the drug because she feared they would be
lured into trying hard drugs and become involved in crime.
When police raided her home they found 116 grams of cannabis resin,
worth £200.
Cooper could have been jailed but a district judge gave her a 200-hour
community sentence after hearing about her good character.
She had already quit her job following her arrest earlier this year,
according to East Anglia News.
Speaking after the hearing, Cooper insisted she had "done the right
thing" to keep her children away from dealers.
But she added: "I don't want my children involved in it any more. I
think I was very lucky today. I could have been given a much heavier
sentence or even jailed.
"The kids would just come down and say 'Do you mind if we pinch a little
smoke because we fancy one?'.
"I regret breaking the law and feel sorry for that. Some people give
their children alcohol and cigarettes at an early age - but I gave mine
cannabis."
Her partner of 25 years, engineering company director Ian Leppard, 51,
added: "When we found out our kids were smoking, we sat down as a family
to discuss it.
"We didn't want them getting involved in anything else or the
underground drug culture. We just told them to stay at home and keep it
to themselves."
Bury St Edmunds Magistrates Court heard how the support assistant at
Barrow Primary School, near the town, had used cannabis herself "on and
off" since she was 18.
She started giving the drug to her daughter when she was 16 and her son
when he was 18 but insisted she only allowed them to use it occasionally.
On June 16 this year police, acting on "intelligence", presented her
with a warrant to search her home in Ixworth, near Bury St Edmunds, and
she led them to where she stashed the drug.
She admitted supplying cannabis at a hearing last month.
Kevin McCarthy, defending, said it was "ironic" that Cooper had acted to
keep her children, who are now 18 and 20, away from dealers.
"The reason for the supply was to keep those cherished children away
from the drug culture," he told the court.
The court received letters of support for Cooper, including one from a
GP and another from a retired detective who spent 32 years with Suffolk
police.
A note from Barrow Primary School headteacher John Gibson said she had
been a "valuable member of staff".
District Judge David Cooper accepted Cooper had been a good teacher but
accused her of "sheer arrogance" in acting as if the law did not apply
to her.
"Until the law is changed, you must abide by it. It's particularly
important for a teacher to ensure that she does," he said.
A Suffolk County Council spokesman said: "She has resigned her post and
that is the end of it. "It is a matter of concern to the school and the
council if anyone breaks the law when it has relevance to their jobs."
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/
Source:
http://www.ukcia.org/news/shownewsarticle.php?articleid=12893
Author:
Daily Mail via UKCIA
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