The tears of a ‘vulnerable’ drug-dealing mum who kept a shotgun for cocaine and heroin gang

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Laura Taylor, 26, has been jailed for conspiracy to supply class A drugs and conspiracy to possess a firearm(Image: GMP)

A ‘vulnerable’ mother sobbed as a judge jailed her for keeping a gun and ‘bagging up’ cocaine and heroin for her ‘drug-dealing boyfriend’.

Troubled Laura Taylor, 26, got into a relationship with a man named in court as Jason Nunes who was said to be a leading figure in a gang supplying class A drugs on a ‘significant scale’.

The gang ‘used’ college students and ‘vulnerable’ adults as part of a plot to supply heroin and cocaine, prosecutor Helen Longworth told Minshull Street Crown Court. Among them was Taylor who would ‘bag up’ drugs at her home in Salford which was also used to store a gun, the court was told.

Taylor claimed her mental health deteriorated following an incident which left her son with life-changing injuries and her life spiralled ‘out of control’ as she consumed drink and drugs and got involved in the supply operation, the court heard.

Paul Treble, mitigating for Taylor, said his client had started a relationship with ‘the main conspirator’ with whom she consumed drugs. She admitted ‘bagging drugs for him but it was under instruction’, the court heard.

Mr Treble said Taylor had been left traumatised by the incident involving her young son who she thought had died. The court heard that ‘mercifully’ the child was treated and survived and was now being looked after by his grandparents and was ‘doing very well’. Taylor, the court heard, had been had suffered psychological difficulties and had been diagnosed with PTSD. She had ‘self-medicated’ with alcohol, the court was told.

Taylor had expressed ‘genuine remorse’ for her crime and she also accepted she had ruined her own and her son’s lives, said Mr Treble.

Jailing her, Judge Joanne Woodward told Taylor she was ‘satisfied you were fully aware’ Nunes was a drug dealer who was ‘involved in the possession of firearms’ and that she ‘knew the risks involved’ and was ‘aware he had left a firearm in your property’.

Although the defendant was ‘distressed’ at being left home alone with the the modified shotgun, messages uncovered by police between the pair ‘make clear you consented’ to the presence of the gun and also to the preparation of drugs at the property, said Judge Woodward.

However, Judge Woodward said she accepted that troubled Taylor was ‘vulnerable’, adding: “I accept through much of your life you have been exposed to domestic violence including between your parents as a child.”

Judge Woodward also acknowledged the ‘traumatic effect’ on the defendant of the incident which had left her son, now aged six, with ‘life-changing injuries’ although he had since ‘made good progress’ and was being cared for by his grandparents.

Taylor herself accepted her mental health deteriorated and her life spiralled ‘out of control’ as she consumed drink and drugs, the court heard. References from her family, touched on in court, said she had been ‘looking for love’ in her relationship with Nunes.

“None of that provides you with any excuse for getting involved in serious criminal behaviour but it does provide context,” said Judge Woodward.

The judge cited the defendant’s lack of previous convictions, remorse and mental state at the time of her crimes and the fact she had been a victim of domestic violence as ‘substantial mitigation’, referring to the defendant’s ‘vulnerability and coercion’.

Taylor, of no fixed abode, had been laughing and joking with her family and friends in the public gallery and with her co-defendants through much of the hearing. However, she sobbed in the dock as the judge jailed her for two years and ten months after she had earlier pleaded guilty to conspiracy to possess a firearm without a certificate and two counts of conspiracy to supply class A drugs (heroin and cocaine).