Father And Son Jailed For Dealing Drugs

11 May 2011, 13:22 | Updated: 11 May 2011, 16:29

A father and son who used a nine-year-old girl as cover to deal heroin have been jailed.

Stephen Edwards, 45, and his son Steven Janny, 21, both from Liverpool, travelled 254 miles to Portsmouth with Edwards's young daughter to sell £8,700-worth of the class A drug.

Officers witnessed them dealing in a park in the Hilsea area of the city last July as they cycled around with the child in tow.

Edwards, admitted supplying heroin and was sentenced to five years in prison at Portsmouth Crown Court.

Janny, pleaded guilty to possession of the drug with intent to supply and was jailed for two years and three months.

Detective Constable Toby Wilson said: “What is quite simply astounding is Edwards was willing to bring his nine-year-old daughter down from Liverpool to assist in the dealing of drugs.

“He showed no concerns for her safety whilst committing these offences and used her in effect as a decoy to hide his dealing from members of the public and police.

“We seized their mobile phones and searched the place where they were staying, where we recovered 19 wraps of heroin, almost £2,000 in cash, laptops, cannabis, train tickets and a copy of the Liverpool Evening Echo.

“Both denied the offences in interview but, using fingerprints and DNA, we were able to link them to the drugs, which were worth just over £8,700.

“The train tickets and newspaper, along with mobile phone data, clearly indicated that both Edwards and Janny had been to Portsmouth several times to deal drugs and were preparing to sell off a significant amount of heroin on this occasion.”

Steven Janny