Youth convicted of trafficking by sharing has prison sentence suspended on appeal

A girl who was just 17 when she was charged in 2017 with supplying cocaine and heroin and possession of the same has had a custodial sentence suspended on appeal.

The girl, who is not being named on account of her age at the time, had pleaded guilty to trafficking charges and was sentenced to 12 months in prison.

Her lawyers, Ishmael Psaila and Edward Gatt had appealed the punishment, saying it was too harsh and didn’t reflect the circumstances of the case. The girl had been trafficking by sharing, her lawyers argued. Her family circumstances at the time had led her to frequent circles which didn’t allow her to obey the probation order she was under. She had since overcome her drug dependency on her own, said the lawyers.

She was only 17 at the time when her probation officer had reported her for missing meetings, Mr Justice Aaron Bugeja heard, and a court had converted her probation order into a custodial sentence.

Her lawyers had argued that the court had not taken her age into account, but Mr Justice Bugeja disagreed, pointing out that the punishment was close to the minimum for the crime she had committed, even after factoring in her age.

However, he said, it would be in her best interest to be subjected to a suspended sentence, during which time she would be under professional supervision to help her overcome her drug habit. If she breached this order, then she could expect an effective prison sentence, said the judge.

Bugeja suspended her 12-month prison sentence for three years, and also imposed a three-year supervision order. The judge ordered that a progress report is to be written every six months and submitted by her probation officer to the court.