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Female crack-dealers jailed for ten years
THREE notorious female drug-dealers who made Bloomsbury residents’ lives a misery were imprisoned for a total of more than 10 years on Friday.
Jamaican-born Tennetta Reid, 27, Teresa Hyman, 28, and Angelita Forsyth, 28, all of no fixed address, could face deportation on their release if the Home Office follows a recommendation by the judge.
At a sentencing hearing at Wood Green Crown Court, judge RJ Winstanley heard how the three openly sold heroin and crack-cocaine in streets near the British Museum from 2002.
Prosecutor Charlotte Eadie told the court they secreted wraps of the drugs in their mouths and vaginas to avoid detection by police and often wore wigs to disguise their identities.
She added they normally operated between 4pm and 9pm around Bedford Square and Gower Street, in full view of school parties and tourists and “in close proximity to the British Museum so obviously a busy tourist area of London”.
She said: “The dealing in that area has of course led to extensive drug use and drug abuse in that area”.
The court heard how users came to buy wraps of heroin or crack worth at £10 or £20 before consuming them in people’s doorways and public places.
The defendants, who each have young children, were finally arrested in August, along with two others, after unwittingly selling class A drugs to two policemen carrying out an undercover operation.
They all pleaded guilty and appeared at Highbury Magistrates Court last month.
The court heard Reid admitted 16 counts of counts of supply, in which she sold wraps to the total value of £150 to undercover officers during the operation, which ran between May and July.
Townsend admitted to eight counts and Hyman to four counts of supplying Class A drugs to undercover officers.
At Friday’s hearing Judge Winstanley heard each case separately. He agreed to make deportation applications and impose anti-social behaviour orders (Asbos) banning them from Bloomsbury for five years after their release from prison, should they remain in the country.
He said: “This trade is extremely upsetting to people who live in this street and citizens are entitled to protection.”
Reid was sentenced to three-and-half years, Townsend to four years and Hyman to three years two months in jail.
Two others, Cherrie Robinson, 31, and Michael Gowie, 28, both of no fixed abode, were sentenced for selling crack-cocaine on October 27.
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