A KENDAL teenager has been jailed for illegally supplying drugs to children – three of whom fell ill and were taken to hospital.
Alex Lightley was said to have been 17 when he committed a raft of substance supply crimes involving under-18s late last year.
Lightley peddled the class C drug alprazolam to three teenage “boys” who were later taken to the Royal Lancaster Infirmary – one by ambulance. One was discovered collapsed in a street, and another found in a “semi-conscious state” in a bedroom.
Prosecutor Joshua Bowker told Carlisle Crown Court: “While in hospital, one of the boys named Mr Lightley as the supplier.”
In addition Lightley, now aged 18, offered to supply alprazolam – known under its brand name of Xanax – to a 14-year-old girl. The court heard she was found last Friday night, “soaking wet and drowsy”, in a garden having taken the drug.
Lightley, whose address was given as c/o Castle Drive in Kendal, admitted almost a dozen drugs offences. These included supplying of alprazolam to the three boys who became poorly; offering to supply it to the young girl; and supplying class A ecstasy to a 15-year-old boy arrested after he and Lightley were stopped by police in a Kendal park.
Detective Constable Tom Pearman, of the South Cumbria Intelligence Unit, said: “This sentence which has been handed out to an 18-year-old man, with no prior convictions, shows how seriously the police and the courts take the supply of these dangerous ‘party drugs’ to young persons in the Kendal area.
“We will continue to highlight the dangers of these drugs and arrest anyone connected with their supply.”
Lightley was punished today (THURS) by Judge James Adkin, who sentenced him to two years in a young offenders’ institution. Judge Adkin told Lightley: “These offences are so serious that only a custodial sentence can be justified.”
