Teenage drug dealer spared jail over supply of fatal MDMA pill that killed 15-year-old girl
A teenage drug dealer has been spared jail despite admitting he supplied a fatal batch of MDMA tablets that killed a 15-year-old girl.Joshua Fletcher-Ward was just 17 when he sold 15 MDMA tablets to Shakira Pellow and her friends for £90 - with devastating consequences.Fletcher-Ward now 19, appeared at Truro Crown Court for sentencing via videolink from his home after previously pleading guilty to two charges of being concerned in the supply of Class A drugs.
Shakira, 15, died after taking high-strength MDMA with her friends in Camborne, Cornwall, on the evening of July 6, 2018.The teenager collapsed in a park near her home in Pengegon and was taken to hospital.She died the following morning after suffering multiple cardiac arrests and organ failure.
In a victim impact statement read to the court, Shakira’s mum, Rita Hole, said: “She had so much to live for. Shakira was vibrant, graceful, gentle and so alive."She had so much unfulfilled promise, so much humanity and so much compassion to share."Shakira was an easy child to love, eager to please, extraordinarily kind and always polite and respectful.
"When a mother gives birth she has an immediate instinctive need to nurture and protect her child. I would give anything to change places with Shakira, to take away the pain she suffered that evening.“I feel like I’ve had my heart ripped out. That pain never leaves me.”
Representing Fletcher-Ward, Robin Smith said: “I hope Shakira’s family can accept that Joshua-Fletcher-Ward remains absolutely and utterly devastated by the impact of his behaviour on that July day two years ago.“Nothing he can do can repair the damage he inflicted but he has done everything possible to reflect the remorse he feels.”The court was also told how Fletcher-Ward, of Telegraph Hill in St Day, suffered a life-changing bike accident last May and is a paraplegic and wheelchair-bound.
Sentencing, Judge Simon Carr said: “In July 2018 Shakira Pellow was a delightful young lady with her whole life ahead of her.“As a result of taking MDMA you supplied she tragically lost her life. Nothing I can do can help relieve the pain felt by all who knew her.
“In May 2019 you suffered catastrophic injuries as a result of a bike crash and will be paraplegic and wheelchair dependant for life.”Fletcher-Ward was sentenced to two years in prison, suspended for two years.