Sophie Evans, instructed by Amy Hooper of Waterfords Solicitors, secured the acquittal of her client charged with two counts of being concerned in the supply of class A drugs following a 5-day trial.
The defendant was charged with the offences after police pulled over the vehicle he was travelling in and found him to be in possession of a mobile phone that housed a county line, selling both cocaine and heroin.
The defence raised was that under s45 Modern Slavery Act 2015. Due to the limitations on the admissibility expert evidence in relation to the offence, careful cross-examination of the Officer in the Case was required to adduce evidence of how county lines drug networks use tactics of grooming, coercion, and exploitation in line with the “Act, Means, Purpose” model of Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking. The evidence of the defendant’s limited role within the county line was also draw out.
Sophie’s client then gave evidence for half a day, detailing an 11-year history of being groomed and coerced by a criminal network which resulted in him being a ‘runner’ for the line.
Sophie then gave a powerful closing speech to the jury, tying her client’s story into the context of how criminal networks operate.
After 7 hours and 10 minutes of deliberation, the jury returned a majority verdict of not guilty on both counts on the indictment.
