Boy drugs runner ordered to watch sentencing

A judge has ordered a 15-year-old drugs runner to return to court to watch him sentence adult defendants caught during a crackdown on street dealers in Huddersfield.

The teenager, who was caught delivering a package containing 100 worth of heroin to an undercover test purchase officer, was said to have committed the offence last August in exchange for the bicycle he was then riding.

Judge Jonathan Rose, who will deal with all the defendants arrested as part of Operation Greystoke, told the youngster he would not be locking him up but ordered him to come back to Bradford Crown Court on May 17 and consider where he could be as an adult if he continues his involvement with drugs.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

He said the boy, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, will have to be at court by 10am to spend the day watching the Judge sentence the adults.

Judge Rose said: "You turn up and see what you are looking at as an adult and I won't send you away."

The judge also made a confiscation order in respect of the bicycle the boy had been given.

The teenager was one of 14 defendants who appeared before Judge Rose yesterday as part of Operation Greystoke.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Rawthorpe man Lee Joyce, 22, was the first adult to be sentenced following the undercover police operation last year.

Between early August and late October Joyce, of Foxlow Avenue, was involved in street dealing to test purchase officers on eight separate occasions.

The court heard that Joyce, who was on bail for other offences at the time, supplied wraps of heroin and cocaine at various locations in Dalton.

Prosecutor John Topham told the court that Joyce had been involved in a fight in December 2008 which ended with an associate Shaun Alexander firing a gun which injured a man and a woman.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Yesterday, he was jailed for four years after admitting the drug supply offences and an additional six months were imposed after he pleaded guilty to common assault and affray.

Stuart Parr, 18, of Tolson Crescent, Dalton, was made the subject of 12 months' detention, suspended for 18 months, after he admitted supplying class A drugs. He was also ordered to do 150-hours unpaid community work and put on supervision for 18 months.

Ten other men and one woman also admitted drug supply offences and will be sentenced next month.

Related topics: