Schoolgirl heroin supplier jailed

David Knox 1607 - 1607 • Published 17 Feb 2009 12:30

A SEX offender has been caged for luring schoolgirls into his Galashiels drug den and plying them with heroin.

Darren Richardson invited two 13-year-old girls into his seedy flat last summer to get high on the addictive drug.

Between June and October the 28-year-old would prepare up to four lines of smack on tin foil on each visit for the teenagers to smoke.

Selkirk Sheriff Court was told that Richardson, who was placed on the Sex Offender"s Register in 2007, harboured the pupils in his Thistle Street home when they should have been at school.

And one of the times the girls were joined by a 14-year-old friend - when all three became ill and vomitted after inhaling the heroin.

Social services were eventually tipped off by one of the girl"s grandmothers, who"d had heard from a local addict that the girls were smoking the drug.

And the father of one girl also told authorities he was suspicious that his daughter had visited the home of a 'paedophile".

Following interviews with the schoolgirls they were moved to a safe house outside the Borders and police raided Richardson"s flat.

Procurator Fiscal Viki Welton told Selkirk Sheriff Court: 'This is a particularly concerning case.

'The girls were given heroin by the accused and took it in his presence.

'Smoking the heroin made them sick but thankfully there have been no lasting effects.'

Richardson, who had a £30 per day habit, was locked up following the October raid on his home.

He initially denied the two charges - supplying heroin and recklessly causing the girls to become ill - under interview with police.

At one point he stuck his fingers in his ears and stared at the floor as cops grilled him.

But the former scaffolder finally put up his hands when appearing from custody on Monday.

Defence lawyer Ross Dow said: 'He didn"t know the girls particularly well and thought they were older that they really were.

'He wasn"t of clear mind when this was all happening and this just shows what can happen to someone who falls to such depths.

'Up to the age of 23 he"d never touched drugs.'

Richardson also pleaded guilty to breaching probation and stealing tools from a van last June.

Sheriff Jamie Gilmour jailed him for a total of 28 months. The Sheriff said: 'Over a five month period you supplied heroin to these two girls, and once you supplied three of them and made them ill.

'These are very serious offences.'

dknox@peeblesshirenews.com

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This article appeared in Border Telegraph 17 Feb 09

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